With one week to go, former President Donald Trump has kept up a full roster of campaign events. For example, on Tuesday he had events planned in Florida and the swing state of Pennsylvania.
Now, in the final leg of the election, what is Trump focusing on as he tries to finally lock down a second term in the White House?
“The election itself is going very well,” said Trump to the crowd at his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday afternoon. He added that he believed he was winning in seven swing states.
However, the GOP candidate also took the stage about an hour and 20 minutes later than he was scheduled to. This late arrival follows a recent trend, according to NPR. It said that his recent speeches are lower energy than usual and less focused.
For example, the outlet noted that he seemed to forget the word fryer in a recent speech where he referenced his recent stint working at McDonald’s to troll his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“And those French fries were good, they were great,” said Trump. “They were right out of the... they were right out of whatever the hell they may come out of.”
NPR said that the gaffes “aren’t isolated events,” for Trump, who frequently mocked current President Joe Biden for making gaffes. When Biden was elected in 2020, he was 78 – the same age Trump is now. At another recent rally in Georgia, Trump reassured the crown that he wasn’t tired.
Trump is also facing backlash related to his Sunday rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, N.Y. There, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe opened for Trump and referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage,” during his set, CNN reported. The GOP candidate has claimed that he did not know who Hinchliffe was and that he does not support the comment.
“I’ve been on the road, or campaigning for 58 straight days – I haven’t taken a day off,” Trump said Tuesday in Florida. “And I won’t be taking one off.”
During the Tuesday event, Trump criticized the Biden administration on a number of issues, including response to Hurricane Helene, inflation, taxation, the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and the Southern border. He kicked things off by mentioning an incident in Pennsylvania that was also announced on his website.
“For several days, election officials in Pennsylvania directed voters to get out of line and leave prior to casting their ballots. This directive was given without reason and actively suppressed Pennsylvanians’ right to vote. Today, in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, a State Committeewoman, Val Biancaniello, was arrested for encouraging people to stay in line and vote,” said the site.
According the Delaware Valley Journal, Ryan Herlinger, a spokesperson for Delaware County said this about the incident: “On Monday, October 28, 2024, an incident occurred at the Voter Service Center located at the Government Center Building in Media, Pa., resulting in the arrest and removal of a woman who, according to multiple eyewitnesses, was disruptive, belligerent, and attempting to influence voters waiting in line. Her behavior prompted several complaints from those in line. Delaware County Park Police – who provide security for the Government Center Building – were on-site and responded promptly to the disturbance.”
Trump has been making unfounded claims about election fraud since the 2020 election, when Biden won both the popular vote and the Electoral College. Even though he has never been able to provide evidence to back up his claims Trump has continued to make them. Some have argued that the claims have eroded our Democracy, and the claims are a focal point in a federal case against Trump brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Even as election officials, including Republicans, lament the impact of Trump’s allegations from the 2020 election on their safety and on the ability of voters to get correct information, the GOP candidate made fresh claims this week on his Truth Social account.
While Trump did briefly mention these new election claims, much of his Tuesday speech was focused on the border. He slammed Harris’ performance as “border Czar” and said that she caused “misery” in the country. Trump also brought up the mother of a young girl who was found bound and strangled, her killers were allegedly migrants.
“There’s never been a border in the world like this,” said Trump.
He made claims about countries in Latin America emptying out their prisons and sending criminals to the U.S. These claims that have been debunked, according to PBS.
“There is no evidence that countries are emptying their prisons – or mental institutions and sending people to illegally migrate to the U.S,” said the outlet.
As far as migrant arrests, National Institute of Justice-funded study results released last month indicate that the rate of arrest for undocumented immigrants is lower than the rate of arrest for native-born U.S. citizens. U.S. Border Patrol data regarding criminal noncitizen arrests shows that those arrests declined from 2017 to 2020, when Trump was in office, and then increased from 2021 through this year.
In an effort to cut down on what he sees as an issue with migrant-related crime, Trump sad that he plans to seize assets from “criminal gangs and drug cartels,” and then use those assets to create a compensation fund for victims of the crimes.
“Something has to be done,” he said, to applause.
Trump was also expected to appear at a rally in Allentown, Pa., later Tuesday. Throughout the week, he’s also expected to campaign in Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Virginia.
As of Tuesday, Harris was still leading Trump at the polls 48.1% to 46.7%, according to data compiled by FiveThirtyEight. However, The Hill’s Decision Desk HQ forecast showed that Trump had a 54% chance of winning, betting markets monitored by Kalshi showed that Trump was favored to win at 63% to Harris’ 37% and The Virtual Tout’s prediction model forecast Trump would win the Electoral College, 346 to Harris’ 192.