Trump’s campaign strapped for cash

TOUR: US PRESIDENT TAKES SWIPE AT BIDEN, HARRIS

‘You know what, people don’t like her. Nobody likes her.’

President Donald Trump savaged his Democratic opponent Joe Biden on Tuesday at the start of a tour of swing states, but seemed to concede that his reelection campaign is running out of donors, requiring him to dip into his own pocket.

“If I have to, I will,” Trump told reporters when asked about spending his own cash. “Whatever it takes. We have to win.”

Trump was on form at a rally with supporters in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which he visited immediately after a speech in

Florida – two of the battleground states he almost certainly has to win to beat Biden on 3 November.

Regaling the cheering crowd with his trademark mix of jokes, insults and over-the-top boasts, Trump said Biden would bring “violent mobs” and an economic “depression the likes of which you haven’t seen”.

He reserved especially acid remarks for Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris, a veteran California prosecutor and US Senator now bidding to become the first black vice-president – and later the likely Democratic frontrunner to become America’s first woman president.

“You know what, people don’t like her. Nobody likes her,” said Trump, who also pointedly mispronounced Harris’ first name, a gesture common on the right and widely interpreted as a way of demonstrating disrespect.

“She could never be the first woman president. That would be an insult to our country,” he said.

Next, he heads to another swing state, Michigan, and at the weekend goes to Nevada.

Tomorrow, Trump and Biden will both be in Pennsylvania – yet another electoral battleground – for 9/11 commemorations at the Flight 93 National Memorial, in Shanksville.

It was not clear whether they might declare a brief truce and appear jointly at the ceremony remembering the passengers who died after attacking their hijackers on 11 September, 2001, sending the doomed plane into a field.

Despite his bullish attitude, the financial difficulties facing the campaign show that Trump has a tricky path to a second term, which he has effectively been campaigning for throughout his administration. – AFP

Picture: Reuters SHOW OF SUPPORT. Supporters, one wearing a shirt with US President Donald Trump’s face, listen as Trump speaks during a campaign event in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on Tuesday.