Trump turns his focus to Harris at his first rally after Biden's exit from the 2024 race

Donald Trump, speaking at his first campaign rally since President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid, redirected a torrent of attacks Wednesday at the de facto Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.

“As you know, three days ago, we officially defeated the worst president in the history of our country, Joe Biden,” Trump told his crowd in Charlotte, North Carolina. “So now we have a new victim to defeat: lyin’ Kamala Harris … the most incompetent and far-left vice president in American history.”

Trump acknowledged at the top of his 90-minute speech that he was leaving behind thesunnier persona and themes of unity that he and other Republicans had suggested they would stick to after he survived an assassination attempt July 13. He repeatedly mispronounced Harris’ first name and at one point, using the catchphrase from his old NBC reality show “The Apprentice,” declared: “Kamala, you’re fired!”

“You know, I was supposed to be nice,” he said. “They say something happened to me when I got shot; I became nice. And when you’re dealing with these people, they’re very dangerous people — when you’re dealing with them, you can’t be too nice. You really can’t be. So if you don’t mind, I’m not going to be nice.”

The audience did not mind, cheering loudly, and for the next hour-plus, Trump was unsparing in his criticism of Harris’ long career in public service.

Trump mocked Harris for failing the bar exam on her first try. He targeted her work as San Francisco’s district attorney, arguing that she made the city worse, even though the good old days he recalled there came during Harris’ tenure, from 2004 to 2011.

“San Francisco, 20 years ago, was the greatest city in our country,” Trump said. “Today, it’s not a livable