From Staff Reports

Former U.S. President Donald Trump focused on the economy in what he called an “intellectual speech” in which he outlined his plans for cutting inflation — but he also took shots at the policies of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris (the latter is Trump’s challenger for the presidency) — during a 75-minute campaign speech Aug. 14 before a full-house of around 2,400 people in the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in downtown Asheville.

Lines of hopeful attendees stretched outside the center for hours early in the day, but seating was limited, so many missed Trump’s speech.

As for the news media response, The Wall Street Journal on Aug. 14 — under a headline of  “New tariffs — and other takeaways from Trump’s economic speech” and a subheadline of “Republican former president asked Americans to consider if they were financially better off when he was in office” — reported that Trump “vowed  that he would ‘Make America Affordable Again’ and promised an economic boom if he wins a second term.”

The WSJ story termed Trump’s speech “wide-ranging,” then noted his promise that “we’re going to have 10 percent to 20 percent tariffs on foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years...”

Meanwhile, the Associated Press’s website featured the headline, “Trump’s campaign called it an economic address. He made big promises, but mostly veered off topic.”

Further, the AP, with which Trump has often clashed, noted that the former president “made little effort to stay on message Wednesday at a rally ... that his campaign billed as a big economic address, mixing pledges to slash energy prices and ‘unleash economic abundance’ with familiar off-script tangents on Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ laugh, the mechanics of wind energy and President Joe Biden’s son.”

Early in his Asheville speech, Trump said, “A lot of people are very devastated by what’s happened with inflation. So we’re doing this as an intellectual speech. You’re all intellectuals today.”

Trump, 78, then laid out two new initiatives he would undertake as president that, he said, would “rapidly” lower prices.

“On my first day back in the Oval Office, I will sign an executive order directing every cabinet secretary and agency head to use every tool and authority at their disposal to defeat inflation and to bring consumer prices rapidly down,” he asserted.

“It will be a whole of government effort to raise the standard of living and make American lives affordable again,” Trump added, noting that will tell his cabinet that he expects “results within the first 100 days, or much sooner than that.”

The former president also pledged to work to slash energy prices by 50 percent within his first year in office.

“I am announcing today that, under my leadership, the U.S. will commit to the ambitious goal of slashing energy and electricity prices by half — at least half,” Trump declared. He said he hopes to achieve that objective “ within 12 months, (or) at a maximum, 18 months.”

The New York Post noted in an Aug. 14 story that “the policy speech (in Asheville) comes as Republicans — mostly behind closed doors — have signaled that they feel Trump needs to focus more on articulating his policy proposals and his stances on key issues rather than leveling personal attacks against Vice President Harris.

“Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley publicly urged Trump on Tuesday (Aug. 13) to “quit whining” about Harris, 59, and focus instead on ‘issues.’”

As for Trump’s Asheville speech, the Post added, “Trump, standing in front of a black banner noting his ‘No Tax on Tips’ and ‘No Tax on Social Security’ policy promises, accused Harris of wanting to ‘talk about her fantasies’ rather than working to improve the economy. 

“‘What she (Harris) needs to explain is the present suffering that she’s caused, along with Joe Biden,’ he said, rattling off a list of worrying economic numbers since President Biden and Harris took office, including lower real household earnings, higher credit card debt, higher mortgage rates, higher insurance rates, and higher grocery and gas prices,” the Post noted.