Republican Donald Trump has lobbed a series of personal and policy-based attacks at Democratic rival Kamala Harris in a speech, hoping to recover from a difficult stretch during which his lead in opinion polls has all but evaporated.
The former US president on Wednesday told supporters in Asheville, North Carolina, he would open up federal lands to drilling and ease the permitting process for pipelines among other measures designed to bring down consumers prices should he win the November 5 election.
He resumed attacks on Vice President Harris' intellect that many allies and donors had hoped he would ditch, at one point calling her "stupid" and denigrating her laugh as a "cackle," saying: "That's the laugh of a person with some big problems."
Some allies, donors and advisers have expressed concern at Trump's deeply personal attacks on Harris in recent weeks and suggested that he instead focus on what they argue are the failed policies she has promoted while in office.
In his speech on Wednesday, he sought to do both and steered clear of broadsides challenging Harris' racial identity which have provoked concerns in previous events.
In recent weeks he has frequently implied that Harris, whose mother was born in India and whose father was born in Jamaica, has only recently leaned into her Black identity.
"Personally it makes no difference to me what Kamala wants to identify as," said Bill Bean, a major Republican donor who hosted Trump's vice presidential pick, JD Vance, at an Indiana fundraiser in late July.
Bean said he had talked with Vance and Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley about the need to attack Harris on her policy record, not her identity.
Before the speech Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not address those criticisms directly, but argued Trump would beat Harris due to the vice president's record in office.
Harris has shown massive fundraising figures since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race last month and paved the way for her bid.
National polling averages show she has opened a modest lead against Trump, while polls in the swing states likely to decide the Nov. 5 election consistently show a tight race.
In a memo released before Trump's Asheville event, Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler accused Trump of neglecting the middle class by opposing union protections and backing corporate tax cuts, among other measures.
Harris on Friday will travel to North Carolina, where she will talk about economic policy in a speech in Raleigh. She will outline a plan "to lower costs for middle-class families and take on corporate price-gouging," a campaign official said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump cast his ballot in the Republican primary for federal and state offices in Florida. While the former president has encouraged voters to cast their ballots whenever is convenient for them, he also has said - without providing evidence - that early voting is corrupt and prone to fraud.
Vance spoke on Wednesday to supporters near Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he accused Harris of lacking an economic plan and criticised her for not answering enough questions from the press.
Trump's appearance in Asheville follows an at-times rambling interview on X with billionaire Elon Musk on Monday night, which was marred by technical difficulties.
Last week, Trump convened a meandering press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and over the weekend he falsely accused the Harris campaign of using artificial intelligence to make her crowds at a rally in Michigan appear larger than they were.
