GREENSBORO, N.C. — As his third straight U.S. presidential campaign came to an end, Donald Trump mused at a rally about hydrogen-powered car explosions, lamented the difficulty of removing spray paint from limestone and marveled at how billionaire supporter Elon Musk The rocket returned to Earth safe and sound.
He complained that his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, didn’t work as hard as he did, praised Chinese President Xi Jinping as “cruel” and called former President Barack Obama a “real asshole.”
His aides said the event in the North Carolina battleground was focused on the economy, but the issue was just a warm-up.
To watch Mr. Trump in the lead-up to the Nov. 5 election and his race against Ms. Harris nearing its end is to watch a candidate become almost completely free. While most politicians are honing their closing arguments to voters, Trump often acts more like an entertainer on a farewell tour than a man seeking to lead the world’s most powerful country.
His unfocused behavior and gloomy rhetoric risk alienating some voters in a race that, despite his words, remains so tight that any swing of a few thousand votes in several competitive states could determine the next president.
He gives Ms Harris’ campaign enough ammunition to argue that he more “unstable” and “upset” than ever. The Democratic nominee has increasingly accepted those terms and pointed to Trump’s incoherence as evidence of a tired old man unfit for the presidency.
“In many, many ways, Donald Trump is not a serious person, but the consequences of him becoming president of the United States are extremely serious,” Ms. Harris said last week.
Trump, 78, defends his piecemeal approach by saying he does what he calls “weaving” – in which he claims he always comes back to square one – and supporters say his off-the-cuff style is part of his appeal.
“His patented technology is a brilliant method of conveying important stories and explaining policies that will help everyday Americans turn the page on Kamala Harris’s last four years of failure,” said Mr. Stephen Chung, a Trump campaign spokesman.
Trump rallies have always been marked by distractions and strange moments. But as time passes, the former president seems content to spend precious minutes telling stories about his days in the White House, musing about long-dead athletes or simply going where his mind takes him.
“They gave Obama the Nobel Prize,” he said Oct. 24 in Las Vegas. “He didn’t even know how the hell he got it. He still doesn’t do it. He was elected and announced that he would receive the Nobel Prize. I was elected in a much bigger, better, crazier election, but he was given the Nobel Prize.”
While no rally is exactly the same, a recurring theme is Trump’s false claim that in four short years, Democrats have turned the country into a dystopian state.
He calls his political opponents “enemies within” and peppers his remarks with graphic descriptions of the murder and rape of young women, false stories of violent gangs taking over small towns and debunked claims of immigrants eating stolen pets.
“We’re like the world’s trash can,” he complained in Arizona.
Trump’s aides say he sets the pace and talks as much as he wants. They don’t try to contain him – and put him on forums like podcasts, where his rambling mannerisms can find a home and he won’t be asked a ton of questions.