WATCH: Trump to talk economy at rally in North Carolina
FULL SPEECH: Trump rally in Asheville, NC
Trump says that if he is re-elected, he will sign an executive order on his first day back in office to direct "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."
ASHEVILLE, NC - Donald Trump will have another opportunity Wednesday to recalibrate his presidential comeback bid, this time with a rally and speech in North Carolina that his campaign is billing as a significant economic address.
Set in a Democratic city surrounded by staunchly Republican mountain counties, the event carries both national and local implications for the former president.
Republicans are looking for Trump to focus from the scattershot arguments and attacks he has made on Vice President Kamala Harris since Democrats elevated her as their presidential nominee. Twice in the past week, Trump has fumbled such opportunities, first in an hourlong news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, then in a 2 1/2-hour conversation on the social media platform X with CEO Elon Musk.
The latest attempt comes in the state that delivered Trump his closest statewide margin of victory four years ago and that is once again expected to be a battleground in 2024. Trump won North Carolina over Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 by less than 1.4 percentage points — about 74,500 votes — and he can’t afford to have the state’s 16 electoral votes shift to Democrats for the first time since Barack Obama prevailed here in 2008.
"We look forward to welcoming President Trump to western North Carolina and talking about how he will restore our economy," said North Carolina Republican Chair Jason Simmons. "This visit shows Republicans understand that North Carolina is bigger than Charlotte and Raleigh — beyond I-77 and I-95 — and these communities here are important."
The question for the campaign is whether Trump can stick to a tight frame on the economy, especially to saddle Harris with the fallout of inflation, rather than default to his usual stemwinding and grievances. The speech comes the same day that the Labor Department reported that year-over-year inflation reached its lowest level in more than three years in July, a potential boon for Harris.
Pearson: economic concerns are key for Trump campaign
Inflation may be cooling off, but the cost of living remains high for many Americans, and Republican strategist C.J. Pearson says that could sway undecided voters in November towards former President Donald Trump. Jim Lokay discusses the state of the race and more with Pearson on "The Final 5."
Harris plans to be in North Carolina on Friday to release more details of her promise to make "building up the middle class ... a defining goal of my presidency."
What time is Trump's rally?
The Republican presidential nominee's Wednesday rally is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Watch in the player above or on FOX Local.