Conservative lawyer George Conway‘s prediction about former President Donald Trump took off online on Friday following Vice President Kamala Harris‘ campaign rally in North Carolina.
Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, took the stage at a rally in the swing state of North Carolina on Friday as she introduced several proposals aimed at bringing down the cost of groceries, the housing market and other essential goods. The vice president’s plan includes tax cuts, a federal ban on price gouging by food producers and offering down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers who qualify.
During the rally, Harris also took aim at Trump’s economic plan noting that during his campaign rally in the state earlier in the week he did not offer a serious economic plan.
“I’ll end with this, two days ago Donald Trump was here in North Carolina. He said he was going to talk about the economy,” Harris said as the crowd laughed. “I think you all watched, know what I’m about to say. But he offered no serious plan to reduce costs for middle class families. No plan to expand access to housing or health care and that actually for most of us was not surprising.”
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, took the stage at Asheville’s Thomas Wolfe Auditorium on Wednesday for a “last minute” rally after his campaign first contacted the city about one on August 8. The rally was dedicated to topics about the economy, but in the first few minutes, the former president said he was unsure the economy was the top issue facing the nation, adding that crime and the southern border are also important issues.
“Today we are going to talk about one subject,” he said 15 minutes into his speech. “They say it’s the most important subject; I’m not sure it is, but they say it’s the most important. Inflation is the most important, but that’s part of the economy.”
Trump went on to blame “radical liberal policies” and “horrific inflation” that has “decimated the middle class” and “gutted finances” of millions of American families. He then pledged that incomes would “soar,” savings would “grow,” and young people could afford homes again should he return to office.
Responding to Harris’ remarks, Conway, a Trump critic who was previously married to the former president’s former senior adviser, Kellyanne Conway, took to X, formerly Twitter, to critique Trump.
“Trump may never be president again, but he will always be a punchline,” he wrote Friday evening.
Conway’s post has garnered over 250,000 views and 9,500 likes as of Saturday morning.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s campaign via email for comment.
Trump may never be president again, but he will always be a punchline https://t.co/OOVqyek7JR
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) August 17, 2024
During Friday’s rally, Harris said it wasn’t “surprising” that Trump did not offer more of an economic plan because “we already know his plans.”
She added: “We know the Project 2025 agenda, so there is a choice in this election. Donald Trump’s plans to devastate the middle class, punish working people and make the cost of living go up for millions of Americans. On the other hand, when I’m elected president, what we will do to bring down costs, increase the security and stability financially of your family and expand opportunity for working- and middle-class Americans.”
Project 2025 is a 900-page document detailing proposed policies for a future Republican administration developed by right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation.
The plan proposes to remove civil service employment protections for thousands of federal employees to make them easier to fire and replace with Republican loyalists. It also proposes to implement sweeping changes to the federal government, including eliminating the Department of Education, reducing the scope of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, rolling back renewable-energy programs to create a regulatory environment that favors the fossil fuel industry, and other conservative changes.
Trump has recently distanced himself from Project 2025, labeling it as “radical” and “seriously extreme” during a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Meanwhile, a Morning Consult poll conducted from August 9 to 11 found that 78 percent of respondents felt that the economy was a primary election issue. Only 18 percent of respondents said they’d heard positive news regarding the economy in the past week, with 42 percent reporting negative comments. The poll surveyed 11,778 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.
