Politics
Trump conducts no-holds-barred press conference while Harris continues dodging media
Former President Trump held yet another hours-long press conference Thursday — his second this month — in an effort to draw a stark contrast between his candidacy, policies and campaign versus his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been dodging the media since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.
Trump held a press conference Thursday at his Bedminster, New Jersey property. The former president and Republican presidential nominee stood at the podium with groceries on display, and delivered remarks focused on the rising costs under the Biden-Harris administration.
“Harris has just declared that tackling inflation will be a ‘Day One priority’ for her,” Trump said Thursday. “But Day One for Kamala was three and a half years ago.”
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“Where has she been and why hasn’t she done it? Why hasn’t she done it?”
Harris has been the Democratic presumptive presidential nominee for 25 days and has not held a press conference or a sit-down interview with the media.
Trump said Harris’ campaign is “hiding” her, in a similar way he said the Biden campaign was “hiding” him.
“They’re hiding her no different than him, because I believe she’s grossly incompetent,” Trump said. “And I don’t think that when people hear what she has to say, they’re going to buy it.”
Sources in Trump’s political orbit tell Fox News that top advisers to the former president are quietly aiming to persuade him to tamp down the insults to Harris and the questioning of the vice president’s racial identity and instead focus on branding her an ultra-liberal and spotlighting her stance on the border, crime and inflation.
But Trump, during the press conference Thursday, was asked about the “personal attacks” against Harris.
“Because of what she’s done to the country, I’m very angry at her – that she had weaponized the justice system against me and other people. Very angry at her,” Trump said. “I think I’m entitled to personal attacks.”
Trump added: “I don’t have a lot of respect for her. I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence. And I think she’d be a terrible president.”
“I think it’s very important that we win,” he continued. “And whether the personal attacks are good or bad, I mean, she certainly attacks me personally.”
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – AUGUST 03: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump takes the stage with his Republican vice presidential running mate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), during a campaign rally at the Georgia State University Convocation Center on August 03, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia. Polls currently show a close race between Trump and Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. (Joe Raedle / Staff)
Trump said Harris “actually called me weird… And she called JD and I weird. He’s not weird. He was a great student at Yale. He went to Ohio State, graduated in two years at the top of his class, and all of these different things.”
Trump pointed to Harris’ running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, saying he is “a weird guy” and Harris is “weird in her policy.”
“Who wouldn’t want to have strong borders?” Trump said. “Who doesn’t want to have lower taxes?”
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“You know, all my life I’ve watched as politicians campaigned and I’ve always been on, you know, for the most part on the other side, on the side that these people are on and they always talked about, we’re going to reduce taxes — this is the only campaign I’ve ever heard where they’re saying, we’re going to increase your taxes,” Trump continued.
Trump stressed that the voters “don’t know who she is.”
“She is a radical left socialist,” Trump said. “But beyond that, I mean, she’s way beyond socialism, who’s going to destroy our country and when they find out, I think you’re going to see something.”
Trump defended his attacks against Harris.
“I just want to win for the country. Some people say, oh, why don’t you be nice? But they’re not nice to me,” he said.
They want to put me in prison. You know, just so you understand. You know, they tell me I should be nice. They want to put me in prison. It’s never happened before in the history of our country. I did nothing wrong.”
Trump was referring to his legal challenges–many cases have been thrown out or delayed.
As for his campaign, Trump said he wished he didn’t have to run.
“If our country were run by Democrats and it was run beautifully, where we were really being productive and everything else, I would have never done this,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t have done it if I thought I couldn’t have won. I think I can win, I think I can win easily once they’re exposed for what they are, which is, you know, radical left lunatics. And that’s what they are.”
Trump said Harris is “going to ruin our country.”
“And I just hope the people of our country, and I believe they are, because I see it already happening,” Trump said. “But I hope they are able to think for themselves, because if they think for themselves, if they look at the destruction that’s going to be caused by Kamala and this, this person from out of nowhere, he came out of nowhere, a state that I love that state, but a state that’s doing so poorly where he’s the one that signed to put tampons in boys bathrooms…signed a bill that boys bathrooms, all boys bathrooms in Minnesota will have tampons and what’s going on?”
“What’s wrong with us? What’s wrong with us as a country?” Trump said. “So no, if we had somebody doing a phenomenal job, I would be extremely happy.”
Trump said that even while he campaigns and hopes to win in November, what he wants is the country to do “really well” in the final months of Biden’s term, even though he said it “would make it probably a little bit harder to win.”
“I hope the country does really well. It’s country first. I want our country to do great,” Trump said. “If they were great leaders, I would be the first to say they’re doing a fantastic job.”
BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA – JULY 13: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Butler County district attorney Richard Goldinger said the shooter is dead after injuring former U.S. President Donald Trump, killing one audience member and injuring another in the shooting. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Trump was asked why he felt God saved his life on July 13 after the assassination attempt at his Butler, Pa. rally.
“That was a miracle,” Trump said. “God has something to do with it. It’s a miracle and God has something to do with it.”
“Maybe it’s–we want to save the world,” he continued. “This world is going down.”
Hours before Thursday’s news conference, the Harris campaign put out a mock email advisory titled “Donald Trump to Ramble Incoherently and Spread Dangerous Lies in Public, but at Different Home.”
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (L) and Minnesota Governor and Democratics vice presidential candidate Tim Walz were slammed on social media for sharing a “cringe” video of themselves interviewing each other. (RONDA CHURCHILL/AFP via Getty Images)
And Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer told Fox News that “Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are talking to voters, laying out a vision of the middle class, and letting Americans know they will fight for their freedoms.”
He argued that “Donald Trump can talk to whoever he wants, but he can’t explain away his toxic Project 2025 agenda, speak in coherent thoughts, or offer anything but insults and higher prices to the middle class.”
Navy Secretary John Phelan was fired on Wednesday after months of infighting with senior Pentagon leaders and disagreements over how to revive the Navy’s struggling shipbuilding program.
Mr. Phelan is leaving the Pentagon and the Trump administration effective immediately, wrote Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, in a terse statement.
In his role leading the Navy, Mr. Phelan had championed the “Golden Fleet,” a major investment in new ships including a “Trump-class” battleship. But Mr. Phelan’s leadership was marred by feuds with senior leaders in the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, Pentagon and congressional officials said.
Mr. Phelan is the first service secretary to leave the administration, though he is the second one to clash with the defense secretary. Mr. Hegseth also has butted heads with Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll over promotions and a host of other issues. Mr. Hegseth fired the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, earlier this month.
The Navy secretary has no role overseeing deployed forces, and Mr. Phelan’s firing is not likely to have significant implications for the conduct of the Iran war or U.S. Navy operations to blockade Iranian ports or open the Strait of Hormuz. As the Navy’s top civilian leader, his main responsibility is to oversee the building of the future naval and Marine Corps force.
But the tumult could make it harder for the Navy to replenish its stock of Tomahawk missiles and high-end air defense systems, which have been in heavy use in Iran.
Tensions had been simmering for months between Mr. Phelan and his two bosses — Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Feinberg — over management style, personnel issues and other matters.
Mr. Feinberg, in particular, had grown increasingly dissatisfied with Mr. Phelan’s handling of the Navy’s major new shipbuilding initiative, and had been siphoning off responsibility for the project from him, said the congressional official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
Mr. Phelan, a White House appointee, also had a contentious relationship with his deputy, Under Secretary Hung Cao, who is more aligned with Mr. Hegseth, especially on some of the social and cultural battles that have defined the defense secretary’s tenure, the officials said.
A senior administration official said that Mr. Hegseth informed Mr. Phelan before the Pentagon’s official announcement that he and President Trump had decided that the Navy needed new leadership.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Phelan referred all questions on Wednesday evening to the Defense Department.
Last fall, Mr. Hegseth fired Mr. Phelan’s chief of staff, Jon Harrison, who had clashed with senior officials throughout the Pentagon. The unusual move highlighted the broader tensions between Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Phelan.
Still, the timing of Mr. Phelan’s firing caught some Pentagon and congressional officials off guard. On Wednesday, Mr. Phelan was making the rounds on Capitol Hill, talking to senators about his upcoming annual hearing with lawmakers to discuss the Navy’s budget request and other priorities.
“Secretary Phelan’s abrupt dismissal is troubling,” Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Wednesday night. “In the midst of President Trump’s war of choice in Iran, at a moment when our naval forces are stretched thin across multiple theaters, this kind of disruption at the top sends the wrong signal to our sailors and Marines, to our allies, and to our adversaries.”
Mr. Phelan also had a close relationship with Mr. Trump. In December, Mr. Phelan appeared alongside Mr. Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort to announce the “Golden Fleet” and the new class of battleships bearing Mr. Trump’s name.
“John Phelan is one of the most successful businessmen in the country — in our country,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s been a tremendous success.”
Before joining the Trump administration, Mr. Phelan ran a private investment fund based in Florida.
“He’s taken probably the largest salary cut in history, but he wanted to do it,” Mr. Trump said at the December press conference. “He wants to rebuild our Navy. And you needed that kind of a brain to do it properly.”
But Mr. Trump’s effusive praise masked deeper tensions with Mr. Phelan’s Pentagon bosses.
Bryan Clark, a naval analyst at the Hudson Institute, said that Mr. Phelan was “driving the Navy in a different direction” than what Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Feinberg wanted.
“He was championing initiatives like the battleship and frigate that don’t align with where the D.O.W. leadership is taking the military, which is toward submarines, stealth aircraft, unmanned systems and software-driven capabilities like electronic warfare and cyber,” Mr. Clark said in an email, using the abbreviation for Department of War, as the administration calls the Defense Department.
Mr. Phelan also clashed with Mr. Hegseth over personnel issues in the Navy and Marine Corps, a former senior military official said. Mr. Hegseth has directed service secretaries to scrub the social media accounts of general- and admiral-level promotion candidates to ensure they are not deemed too “woke” by Mr. Hegseth’s standards, the official said.
Maggie Haberman and Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.
Politics
Manhattan DA’s office employee charged with sexual abuse after alleged incident on Queens subway
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An analyst with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was arrested Tuesday on allegations that he sexually abused a woman while off duty, police told Fox News Digital Wednesday.
Tauhid Dewan, 28, is accused of inappropriately touching a 40-year-old woman’s private area during a late-afternoon rush-hour subway ride in Queens, according to local outlet PIX11.
The victim was reportedly a random woman, the outlet added, citing sources who said she and the suspect were strangers.
A spokeswoman for the office told Fox News Digital that the staffer has since been suspended.
MAN ARRESTED IN NYC STRANGULATION DEATH OF WOMAN FOUND OUTSIDE TIMES SQUARE HOTEL
Tauhid Dewan, 28, was arrested in New York City Tuesday following allegations that the Manhattan DA staffer innapropriately touched a woman during a subway ride (LinkedIn)
According to the New York Police Department, Dewan was arrested around 5 p.m., possibly after returning from work.
PIX11 added that the arrest occurred minutes after the incident, which allegedly took place on a No. 7 train near the Junction Boulevard station.
He was subsequently arrested by the NYPD Transit Bureau and is facing multiple charges, including forcible touching on a bus or train, third-degree sexual abuse, and second-degree harassment involving physical contact.
He was also charged with acting in a manner injurious to a child under the age of 17, suggesting a minor may have been nearby and either witnessed the alleged conduct or was placed at risk by it.
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Tauhid Dewan is an employee of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which is led by DA Alvin Bragg. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Law enforcement sources said Dewan has no prior arrests, local outlets reported.
According to city records, Dewan has worked at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office as a senior investigative analyst for nearly four years, since July 10, 2022.
People board a train at a subway station in New York City on Aug. 1, 2025. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
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His arraignment in Queens Criminal Court was scheduled for Wednesday, according to state records.
SAN FRANCISCO — With the California governor’s race quickly approaching, six candidates will face off Wednesday evening in the first debate since former Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race in the aftermath of sexual assault and misconduct allegations.
The debate takes place at a critical moment in the turbulent contest to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom. Ballots will start landing in Californians’ mailboxes in less than two weeks, and voters are split by a crowded field of eight prominent candidates. The debate also takes place after former state Controller Betty Yee ended her campaign because of a lack of resources and support in the polls.
Two Republicans — Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton — and four Democrats — billionaire Tom Steyer, former Biden administration Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan — will take the stage at Nexstar’s KRON4 studios in San Francisco. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, both Democrats, were not invited to participate because of their low polling numbers.
As the candidates strive to distinguish themselves in a crowded field, the debate could include fiery exchanges about the role of money in politics and potential heightened attacks on Becerra, who has surged in the polls since Swalwell dropped out. With the debate taking place on Earth Day, environmental issues are also likely to be raised.
The Wednesday night gathering is the first televised debate in the gubernatorial contest since early February. Last month, USC canceled a debate hours before it was set to begin over mounting criticism that its criteria excluded all major candidates of color.
The 7 p.m. debate is hosted by Nexstar and will be moderated by KTXL FOX40 anchor Nikki Laurenzo and KTLA anchor Frank Buckley. It can be viewed on KRON4 (San Francisco), KTLA5 (Los Angeles), KSWB/KUSI (San Diego), KTXL (Sacramento), KGET (Bakersfield) and KSEE (Fresno). NewsNation will also air the debate.
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