Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are traversing battleground states with less than a month until Election Day.
Trump’s son, Eric Trump, believes they have 'incredible momentum' as his father has focused on the economy, the border, and, more recently, the current administration’s response to hurricanes.
Hurricane Response
“Nobody's ever seen such a weak response. So we have to get a strong response,” former President Donald Trump said earlier this week.
Eric Trump echoed the sentiment as Hurricane Milton took aim at Florida Wednesday afternoon, and after Hurricane Helene devastated North Carolina.
“They're watching their houses and everything that they've ever owned. You know, their belongings get wiped out in mudslides. And, I mean, it's gone. It's all gone. And yet you see Mayorkas come out and say that FEMA is out of money, yet we give $200 billion to Ukraine, we give money to every country around the world ”, Eric Trump said.
At the beginning of the month, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters the administration was “meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have” but noted, “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season and what is imminent.”
FEMA officials indicated they have what’s needed to support the responses to the hurricanes, with a continuing resolution passed by Congress allowing the authority to spend against the president’s budget, but that they are assessing how much they may need from Congress.
“The amount that we're spending for Hurricane Helene and the amount that we anticipate we're going to spend for Hurricane Milton, we are watching that very closely and assessing it every day so we can have a good estimate of how much more that we will need to be asking for in a supplemental,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said Wednesday.
FEMA is also combatting disinformation surrounding the disaster response. President Joe Biden has put the onus on former President Trump.
“It's harmful to those who most need the help. Quite frankly, these lies are un-American. And there’s simply no place for them. Not now, not ever. Former president Trump has led to this onslaught of Lies,” Biden said in an address Wednesday evening.
The false information the administration has combatted has included false claims survivors are only eligible for $750 and that disaster funds were spent on housing undocumented migrants.
RELATED STORY | FEMA addresses rumors hurricane survivors receive less assistance than migrants
Eric Trump stood by the false claims.
“We have 157 hotels in New York that are filled with illegal immigrants right now that cost taxpayers of this country over a billion dollars. We gave Ukraine over $200 billion so that young kids can can shoot at each other in trenches, and we can see it every single night being played on YouTube. Yet, FEMA, FEMA, in the middle of the worst hurricane season we've probably seen in a century, has run out of money. There's no money left in FEMA. They don't have a reserve,” Eric Trump said, adding, “I think it's so disingenuous when, when people say this, 'Oh, this is just a first step,' and they talk about misinformation. It’s not misinformation. FEMA has run out of money.”
When asked whether his father would increase funding for disaster relief, the younger Trump said, “If you're talking about a fund to take care of Americans, my father would absolutely increase a fund to take care of Americans,” also pointing to Trump’s intention to build a border wall and fight fentanyl.
“Americans are coming in last so, yeah, you better believe my father would support anybody in this country. You better believe my father thinks that, you know, this has been the greatest calamity of a response to a national disaster ever,” Eric Trump said.
President Biden indicated in early October he expects to have to ask Congress for supplemental funding, though hasn’t given a timeline.
“I don't know what his conversations are going to be with Speaker Johnson, but I can guarantee you he wants funding for people who have been devastated by these storms,” Eric Trump said when asked whether the former president would tell House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring Congress back to deal with hurricane funding.
The storms have impacted states key to the election, which is less than a month out, including the battleground state of North Carolina.
“Temporary voter locations have to pop up in certain areas in North Carolina, specifically where you know, you literally have counties that have been absolutely devastated. The structures are just gone, right?” Eric Trump said. “And so that's, that's obviously something that the state's going to do, and that's obviously something as a campaign we’ll work with, right? I mean, you need to be able to maintain, you know, basic democracy, you know, just despite tragedy.”
Another Trump/Harris Debate?
Voters heard Trump and Vice President Harris debate each other last month, in what could be their only debate.
CNN reported it set a Thursday deadline for campaigns to respond to their offer to host a second debate at the end of the month.
While Harris’ campaign has been willing, Trump has not indicated a willingness to participate.
RELATED | Prosecutors say Trump was engaged in 'private criminal effort' to overturn 2020 election
“I'm happy he's not, not going back into one of these kind of cesspools of unfairness. I don't think you could credibly say that the ABC debate was anything but a three-on-one. I mean, I think the entire country saw that. And so how many more of those does he have to walk into?” Eric Trump said.
Foreign Policy
Debate or not, each candidate’s foreign policy approach has been a significant focus on the campaign trail.
Trump has vowed conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza wouldn’t have happened under his administration and has often touted his relationships with leaders of Russia and North Korea in his first administration.
Trump had several private calls with Vladimir Putin after leaving office, Bob Woodward reported in his book “War.”
Eric Trump said he had “no idea of any conversation with Vladimir Putin” when asked about the report.
“Oftentimes the media thinks it's bad to have a good relationship with other world leaders, even when they're adversarial to this country, as clearly, Vladimir Putin is in many ways. It's great to be able to pick up that phone,” Eric Trump said. "We need that kind of, you know, we need that kind of relationship. We need that kind of diplomacy,” touting what his father has described as “peace through strength.”
Woodward’s book, reportedly also says Trump sent COVID-19 testing machines to Putin during the pandemic.
"None of these made-up stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s communications director, said in a statement following reports of Woodward’s book.
The Kremlin confirmed testing machines were sent, according to multiple media reports.
Trump’s stance towards Ukraine has drawn criticism from Vice President Harris.
“These proposals are the same as those of Putin. And let us be clear: They are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable,” Harris said during a visit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month.
Trump also met with the Ukrainian leader during his visit to the United States.
The Campaign
Trump will take his campaign west — with stops in Colorado, California and Nevada.
“I think we're gonna have a great three weeks. We have incredible momentum, and people have to get out, and they have to get to the polls and they have to vote. Our country can do so much better than we're doing on every front right now,” Eric Trump said.
