Trump looks to sharpen his edge on the economy in battleground North Carolina

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump will paint a bleak picture of the U.S. economy in a speech Wednesday and blame it on the administration of his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

“It’s basically a speech on what’s going on with our economy. It’s gotten very bad under this group of people, with inflation, with the economy itself and so many other things,” Trump told reporters ahead of the speech, scheduled for 4 p.m. ET in Asheville, North Carolina.

The speech comes as Trump works to retool his campaign after President Joe Biden withdrew his reelection bid and endorsed Harris in late July.

As Harris has shot up in the polls, the solid lead Trump had over Biden has evaporated. But Trump still maintains his longstanding advantage over Democrats when it comes to which candidate voters believe would be best for the economy.

Earlier in the day, the Labor Department reported that the annual inflation rate had slowed in July to 2.9% year over year, its lowest level since 2021.

Trump’s political fortunes have benefited greatly over the past three years from the high inflation and high interest rates that have squeezed consumers. Polls show that a majority of voters believe the U.S. economy is in recession, for which they blame Biden.

While attacking first Biden, and now Harris, over inflation has worked well for Trump on the campaign trail so far, new economic data risks blunting Trump’s attacks.

Since Harris replaced Biden, North Carolina has reemerged as a key battleground state that could be in play for Democrats. Trump won the Tar Heel State in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, but his polling advantage has recently shrunk.

Harris, fueled by new enthusiasm and hundreds of millions in donations, will come to the state Friday to deliver her own speech on the economy.

But it’s unclear if Trump will stick to the script at Wednesday’s event. Trump recently veered far off topic during his more-than-two-hour interview on X with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and during an hourlong news conference at his Florida resort home Mar-a-Lago.

Trump’s response to his new opponent has been in part to question her racial identity and crowd sizes, try to label her with an array of derisive nicknames and malign her intelligence.

Some of Trump’s allies have warned him to narrow his attacks to substantive policy differences or risk turning off more persuadable voters.