--- title: How Trump Plans to Run Against Kamala Harris description: Privately, Trump’s top lieutenants acknowledge Kamala Harris’s candidacy has reshaped the race canonical: https://time.com/7001912/kamala-harris-donald-trump/ author: Eric Cortellessa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-07-23T17:04:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:23.855Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Trump Plans to Run Against Harris og:description: Privately, Trump’s top lieutenants acknowledge Kamala Harris’s candidacy has reshaped the race og:url: https://time.com/7001912/kamala-harris-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcb277f55a3f1304/698a591609208f703341d699/GettyImages-2162188791.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: 2024 Republican National Convention: Day 1 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Trump Plans to Run Against Harris twitter:description: Privately, Trump’s top lieutenants acknowledge Kamala Harris’s candidacy has reshaped the race twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcb277f55a3f1304/698a591609208f703341d699/GettyImages-2162188791.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Trump Plans to Run Against Harris > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. Senior correspondent Philip Elliott brings sharp context to the issues driving the capital, connecting the decisions made in Washington to the institutions, industries and people they affect. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Donald Trump Outlines Policy Proposals As He Accepts the Nomination at the RNC [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump Outlines Policy Proposals As He Accepts the Nomination at the RNC](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uLiqxCkk.m3u8) (4:55)  _Published 2024-07-19. Donald Trump used his speech at the Republican National Convention Thursday night to outline a few policy proposals during his speech, drawing a contrast with the Biden Administration over the economy, immigration, and foreign policy._  by [Eric Cortellessa](https://time.com/author/eric-cortellessa/)  ## Eric Cortellessa Senior Correspondent Jul 23, 2024 5:04 PM UTC  Former President Donald Trump, left, and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, at the Republican National Convention on July 15, 2024 in Milwaukee Former President Donald Trump, left, and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, at the Republican National Convention on July 15, 2024 in Milwaukee Win McNamee—Getty Images  by [Eric Cortellessa](https://time.com/author/eric-cortellessa/)  ## Eric Cortellessa Senior Correspondent Jul 23, 2024 5:04 PM UTC Donald Trump crafted his campaign around a specific opponent, unleashing a troll factory to portray President Joe Biden as too old and enfeebled to stay in office. Now, with four months until the election, Trump will run against someone nearly 20 years younger than him. Since the President’s ruinous debate performance last month, Trump officials have been preparing for this moment, compiling opposition research on Vice President Kamala Harris in case Biden stepped aside. By the time Biden withdrew from the race, Trump’s team and allied groups were already mounting an offensive against Harris, who within 36 hours of Biden dropping out amassed the delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee. Pointing to her political rise in San Francisco, Trump’s camp has tried to paint her as a radical leftist from California, hoping to make her anathema to moderate voters. They began circulating a 2019 GovTrack survey that [ranked](https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/politics/kamala-harris-most-liberal-senator-fact-check/index.html) Harris the most liberal U.S. Senator. Drawing on viral memes, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has [encouraged](https://www.axios.com/2024/07/22/kamala-harris-senate-republicans-nrsc-president) GOP candidates and officeholders to emphasize her idiosyncrasies, such as her love of Venn diagrams. Some MAGA loyalists have [mocked](https://nypost.com/2024/07/06/business/america-may-soon-be-subjected-to-the-countrys-first-dei-president-kamala-harris/) Harris—the first Black, Asian, and female Vice President—as a “DEI” candidate, using the initialism for “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs. On his Truth Social platform, Trump recently nicknamed his new rival “Lyin’ Kamala Harris” and [called](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/112831747750361876) her “dumb as a rock.” In some ways, Trump’s camp isn’t starting from scratch. They are planning to pillory Harris for the same policy issues on which Biden was most vulnerable, including inflation and increased border crossings. At the same time, they will try to keep a signature campaign issue alive by blaming her for masking Biden’s diminished mental acuity. “You're still attacking the same record,” says a person close to Trump. “She's complicit in the record. She doesn't get to hide.” In other words: the race is on for Trump to set the terms of the matchup. As Biden’s departure didn’t trigger the Democratic infighting many were anticipating, Republicans are plotting to undercut Harris as she reintroduces herself to voters.“It’s always important to define your opponent before they can define themselves,” says Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida, a Trump surrogate. “That's going to be a focus of the campaign.” For her part, Harris has consolidated the field faster than anyone expected. Within 24 hours, she secured endorsements from Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi. She fended off would-be challengers, including Illinois Gov. J.D. Pritzker, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. She [raised](https://apnews.com/article/kamala-harris-fundraising-democrat-president-biden-trump-434a55ea1eb29e5da92cc9b1f9cb401f) a stunning $81 million. Simply put, the Democrats are no longer in disarray. Trump and his allies still have plenty of time and resources. His campaign reported [nearly](https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/P80001571/#total-raised) $130 million cash on hand last month, and pro-Trump PACs [raised](https://www.ft.com/content/cc1116c6-a869-43d7-8fad-8432215f651d) more than $430 million between April and June. That was before Trump survived an assassination attempt, which prompted another fundraising surge. The _Wall Street Journal_ [reported](https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/elon-musk-has-said-he-is-committing-around-45-million-a-month-to-a-new-pro-trump-super-pac-dda53823) last week that Elon Musk plans to contribute $45 million to a pro-Trump PAC. The upshot is that there will be stockpiles of funds to bolster a candidate with a preternatural ability to take his adversaries down. Those dollars have already been deployed. On Sunday afternoon, shortly after Biden’s announcement, a super PAC supporting Trump, MAGA Inc., released an attack ad airing in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona [accusing](https://x.com/MAGAIncWarRoom/status/1815096338335625505) Harris of covering up Biden’s “obvious mental decline” and driving the Administration’s policies. “It's a very easy transition, because she's the person who was hiding his condition from the public,” says Alex Pfeiffer, MAGA Inc.’s communications director. “How can she be trusted?” On Tuesday, the group [dropped](https://x.com/MAGAIncWarRoom/status/1815717231466103138) another ad calling Harris “dangerously liberal.” Many of Trump’s supporters saw Biden as a weaker challenger compared to Harris. The day before the President bowed out, Trump [polled](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/22/trump-michigan-rally-live-poll-biden-harris/74497020007/) thousands of MAGA rally goers in Michigan, asking who they would prefer him to run against. The crowd booed when he mentioned Harris and cheered when he mentioned “crooked Joe Biden.” Privately, Trump’s top lieutenants acknowledge Harris’s candidacy has reshaped the race. For Democrats, she has neutralized a top voter concern that both candidates were too old for a second term. She can spotlight the former President’s role in ending a constitutional right to an abortion by installing three conservative Supreme Court justices who overturned _Roe v. Wade_. As a former San Francisco District Attorney and California Attorney General, Harris has signaled that she will frame the campaign as a contest between a prosecutor and a convicted felon. “He'll still say it's a partisan witch hunt,” says the person close to Trump. As much as possible, Trump plans to cast the election as a referendum on Biden.Despite his significant first-term accomplishments—shepherding a post-Covid economic recovery, passing more major legislation than any President since Lyndon Johnson, corralling the west against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine—Biden remains underwater with voters. Fifty-seven percent of Americans [disapprove](https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-BIDEN/POLL/nmopagnqapa/) of his job performance. “Joe Biden has been the worst President in my lifetime and Kamala Harris has been right there with him every step of the way,” [tweeted](https://twitter.com/JDVance1/status/1815119847941984550) Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio. “She owns all of these failures, and she lied for nearly four years about Biden's mental capacity—saddling the nation with a president who can't do the job.” Still, it’s no longer a Biden-Trump rematch. Most voters had baked in views of each candidate, leaving some pundits to suspect there were few persuadable swing voters left. Harris’s emergence might have changed the equation. “So, we are forced to spend time and money on fighting Crooked Joe Biden, he polls badly after having a terrible debate and quits the race,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Now we have to start all over again.” ## Transcript Monday, a major ruling was handed down from a highly respected federal judge in Florida, Ilen Cannon, finding that the prosecutor and the fake documents case against me were totally unconstitutional, and the entire case was thrown out of court. With all of that publicity, thrown out of court. If Democrats want to unify our country, they should drop these partisan witch hunts, which I have been going through for approximately eight years. And they should do that without delay and allow an election to proceed that isy of our people. We're gonna win it anyway. On this journey, I am deeply honored to be joined by my amazing wife, Melania. And Mania, thank you very much. You also did something really beautiful, a letter to America calling for National Unity, and it really took the Republican Party by surprise. I will tell you, it was beautiful. But I'm thrilled to have a new friend and partner fighting by my side. The next Vice President of the United States, the current Senator from Ohio, JD Vance and his incredible wife, Oha And he's gonna be with us for a long time, and it was an honor to select him, great, great student at Yale. His wife was a great student at Yale. They met at. Yale. These are two smart people. So, JD, you're gonna be doing this for a long time. Enjoy the ride. If you took the ten worst presidents in the history of the United States, think of it. The ten worst added them up. They will not have done the damage that Biden has done. Only going to use the term once. Biden. I'm not going to use the name anymore, just one time. The damage that he's done to this country is unthinkable. It's unthinkable. Under this administration, our current administration, groceries are up 57%, gasoline is up 60 and 70%. Mortgage rates have quadrupled. And the fact is, it doesn't matter what they are because you can't get the money anyway. Can't buy houses. Young people can't get any financing to buy a house. The total household costs have increased on average of $28,000 per family under this administration. Republicans have a plan to bring down prices and bring them down very, very rapidly. By slashing energy costs, we will in turn reduce the cost of transportation, manufacturing and all household goods. So much starts with energy. And remember, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any other country, by far, we are a nation that has the opportunity to make an absolute fortune with its energy. We have it, and China does it. Under the Trump administration just 3.5 years ago, we were energy independent, but soon we will actually be better than that. We will be energy dominant and supply not only ourselves, but we will supply the rest of the world. So to conclude, Just a few short days ago, my journey with you nearly ended. We know that. And yet here we are tonight all gathered together, talking about the future promise, and a total renewal of a thing we love very much. It's called America. We live in a world of miracles. None of us knows God's plan or where life's adventure will take us. And quite simply, we will very quickly make America great again. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Wisconsin. God bless you. God bless you, Wisconsin, and God bless the United States of America, our great country. Thank you very much, everybody. 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