Trump press conference live: Former president speaks to the media surrounded by groceries

Former President Donald Trump started taking questions at his press conference at Bedminster, New Jersey, and responded to a question about whether he should follow advice from fellow Republicans and stop targeting Vice President Kamala Harris with personal attacks.

'I'm very angry at her that she's weaponized the Justice system against me and other people, very angry at her,' he said. 'I think I'm entitled to personal attacks.'

Trump acknowledged he did not respect Harris, claiming he watched a video recently where few people even knew that her last name was even 'Harris.'

'I don't have a lot of respect for her. I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence and I think she'll be a terrible president.'

Trump indicated he continued facing personal attacks from Democrats, when he was president and during his 2024 campaign.

'She certainly attacks me personally,' he said, referring to Harris and her running mate Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota calling him and his running mate JD Vance 'weird.'

Trump referred to Walz as a terrible governor of the 'failed state' of Minnesota.

'He's a weird guy. And she's weird in her policy,' he said.

He again focused on the legal cases that were brought up against him after he announced his decision to run for president again.

'They're not nice to me, they want to put me in prison,' he said.

Trump is repeatedly trying to link Vice President Kamala Harris to communist movements, comparing her to Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

'You’re all going to be thrown into a communist system,' Trump said at his New Jersey golf club, characterizing Harris's health care plans.

'She’s running on the Maduro plan,' he said as Harris prepares to give an economy speech on Friday in North Carolina.

He accused her of plotting 'communist price controls' after she vowed to take on 'price gouging.'

Donald Trump himself suggested during his interview with Elon Musk earlier this week that he could flee to Venezuela if he loses the election, because it is 'far safer' than the United States.

'If something happens with this election, which would be a horror show, we'll meet the next time in Venezuela, because it'll be a far safer place to meet than our country,' he said.

President Donald Trump ridiculed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for his policies during a press conference on Thursday.

'He's the one that signed in tampons in boys bathrooms. He signed a bill, that all boys bathrooms in Minnesota will have tampons,' he said. 'What's going on. What's wrong with us as a country?'

Trump did not use Walz's name, but said that he wrecked the state of Minnesota.

'Out of nowhere he came, nowhere,' Trump said.

The Secret Service plans on using bulletproof glass to protect Donald Trump at future campaign events outdoors.

Over a month after the former president was shot at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, multiple sources told ABC News that the department is shifting its protective protocols.

Since the shooting on July 13, Trump has held close to a dozen campaign rallies and events indoors.

On Thursday afternoon, however, the former president spoke outdoors from his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The sources said that Trump's security detail plans on setting up ballistic glass on three sides of the former president for future events.

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that he'd 'love' former rival Nikki Haley to hit the campaign trail on his behalf.

He made the statement after first pointing out how badly he beat Haley in the Republican primary - including in her home state of South Carolina.

'I fought Nikki very hard. I beat her in her own state by legendary numbers,' Trump said.

'I appreciate her advice.I have to do it my way. I ran against her and I did it my way,' he continued. 'I won in South Carolina by numbers that nobody's ever seen before.'

He called Haley a 'good woman' and said he appreciated her eventual endorsement.

'She gave me support, but I'd love to have her go around and campaign,' Trump said.

Trump, however, brushed off Haley's advice that he needed to 'quit whining' about Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, and turn his attention to attracting independent voters - a statement she made on Fox News Tuesday.

'All we have to do is define our opponent as a communist, a socialist, someone who wants to destroy our country,' the Republican nominee said.

He then added, 'I think I'm doing a very calm campaign,' noting that some reporters at his Bedminster resort Thursday would likely say he 'ranted and raved' at the press conference, which stretched to nearly an hour and a half.

Trump was asked why he thinks God saved his life following last month's assassination attempt, and, for what purpose?

He said:

God had something to do with it, it's a miracle and God had something to do with it. And maybe it's we wanna save the world, this world is going down, this world is going down. So, it could be,

but I believe that.'

Trump admired some of the foodstuffs featured behind him during his press conference - but said he didnt' like tags showing price increases.

'I think I’m going to take some of them back to my cottage and have a lot of fun,' he said. 'I haven’t seen Cheerios in a long time.'

Former President Donald Trump spoke about Iran at his press conference on Thursday at Bedminster, New Jersey, vowing to support peace and stability around the world.

'I'm not looking to be bad to Iran, we're going to be friendly I hope with Iran, maybe, but maybe not. But we're going to be friendly I hope.'

Trump said Hamas would have never attacked Israel if he was president, because Iran did not have much money to fund their terrorist operations.

He recalled a comment from Hungary President Viktor Orbán who said that if Trump was the president, the world's terrorists and dictators would be 'afraid' of him and be peaceful.

'We would have not have any problems with China and Taiwan, we wouldn't have had any problems with Ukraine and Russia, we wouldn't have any problems with anything,' he said.

Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national press secretary, posted to X a picture behind the scenes at the ongoing press conference.

'This is what a press conference looks like, Kamala Harris,' she wrote.

Kamala Harris has yet to do a one-on-one interview or hold a press conference since Biden bowed out of the race 25 days ago.

Trump is reaching back to pet peeves and grievances more than 30 minutes into his opening statement.

Included is his well-established concern about the impact of windmills on birds.

‘You want to see a bird cemetery? Just go under a windmill,’ Trump said, in just one of his tangents while standing in front of food items.‘

‘These windmills knock ‘em out like nothing,’ he said, calling it a ‘green scam.’

‘They’re going to build big solar fields that take up half the desert,’ he complained.

That came after he declared: ‘And by the way, I’m a big fan of electricity.’

Trump is enjoying the sunny weather even as he rails on Harris at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club.

He began his presser saying it was ‘perfect weather for this,’ noting that ‘there are no clouds’ and calling it ‘really nice.’

Later, he said Harris had ruined California, despite its natural advantages.

‘And what they've done to that great state with the beautiful weather like this weather – they have this weather all the time, and they have the ocean, they have the sun, they have everything good,’ Trump said.

Former President Donald Trump began his press conference welcoming reporters to his club at Bedminster, New Jersey, and talking about the weather.

But he soon got right to the point as he looked at his notes laying on the podium.

'Kamala Harris is a radical California liberal, who broke the economy, broke the border, and broke the world, frankly,' he said. 'Very distractive to the entire world.'

'She destroys everything she touches and if she wins your finances and your country will never recover,' he said.

Trump lambasted Harris for calling inflation a priority that she would address on 'Day One' of her administration.

'Day One, really for Kamala, was three and a half years ago, where has she been and why hasn't she done it?' he asked.

He described the massive jump in inflation during the first three years of the Biden adminstration as 'Kamala's inflation nightmare' and warned of Harris' 'communist' proposals like price controls to help reduce inflation.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already scrapped his Chicago events next week - which were to be held in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention.

Mr. Kennedy will now be testifying in court next week in Harrisburg, PA on Tuesday and Mineola, NY on Wednesday or Thursday to defend ballot access challenges. In order to prepare for the court appearance, the Kennedy campaign has canceled its events in Chicago on Sunday and Monday.

Kennedy canceled the campaign events he had scheduled as counter-programming to the Republican National Convention last month as well - and was spotted working out at two Milwaukee gyms instead.

Donald Trump said at his Thursday press conference he should have been nicer to Joe Biden during their only debate.

'Joe Biden ... I mention him but he's sort of gonzo, it all started with the debate, I should have been a little easier on him

Republican vice presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance, on Thursday encouraged independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to drop out of the race and endorse former President Donald Trump.

'He's much closer on the issues to President Trump than he is to Kamala Harris,' the Ohio senator observed.

Vance's comments came on the heels of a Washington Post report that said Kennedy had tried reaching out to Harris' campaign to discuss a Cabinet position in exchange for dropping out of the 2024 race.

The Democrats expressed zero interest in a deal.

For months, Democrats and Republicans fretted that RFK Jr. could play the role of spoiler, but his support has crumbled in recent weeks.

The former Democrat admitted to dumping a dead bear cub in New York's Central Park, after the previous brain worm scandal.

It's unclear if Kennedy is still engaged in negotiations with Trump's team.

The Post reported that he was spotted in the Palm Beach area - where Mar-a-Lago is located - but Trump's team has been tight-lipped on whether there were any meetings between the two camps.

A Jordanian national living in the U.S. has been detained after threatening to 'destroy or explode' everything in America and attacking multiple Florida businesses including a power plant.

Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen, 43, has been charged with four counts of threatening to use explosives and one count of destruction of an energy facility, the Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed Thursday.

Since June 2024, Hnaihen has rampaged through Orlando, Florida, vandalizing multiple local businesses, leaving threatening notes - particularly to those who have expressed support for Israel amid their ongoing war with Hamas.

His letters were addressed to the U.S. government and listed a series of demands, and if they were not followed, he threatened to 'destroy or explode everything here in whole America. Especially the companies and factories that support the racist state of Israel.'

Former President Donald Trump is hammering VP Kamala Harris and President Biden on rising food costs – based on the props displayed at his Bedminster golf club for a press conference.

Aides assembled an array of products including breakfast cereal, steaks, ketchup, milk, and Wonder bread.

Boxes of Froot Loops, Cheerios, Wheaties and Cinnamon Toast Crunch sat on a table next to the president in addition to bacon, hamburger patties, eggs and other basic baking supplies and Folgers coffee.

[Inflation] kills the American Dream for young people. Young people are being devastated by what they've done to our country.

Grocery prices have skyrocketed. Cereals are up. 26% bread is up. 24% butter is up. 37% baby formula is up 30% flowers up 38% and eggs are up 46% and many items are up at much higher rates than that.

Now Kamala is reportedly proposing communist price controls...But they don't work. They actually have the exact opposite impact and effect, but it leads to food shortages, rationing, hunger, dramatically more inflation.

Trump has been talking about the costs of bacon, and on Wednesday held up a box of Tic Tacs to illustrate his concerns.

Voters have registered inflation as a top concern for months, although this week the Consumer Price Index dropped to an increase of 2.9 percent compared to a year ago.

Donald Trump is bringing some familiar faces into his campaign after a slate of polls showed Kamala Harris eating away at his support in battleground states.

The campaign is dismissing talk of a shakeup, calling it an effort to bolster the existing structure – in a White House effort that before the GOP Convention drew plaudits for stability as Trump dispatched his primary rivals.

Trump himself put that interpretation to rest by calling campaign chiefs Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita 'THE BEST' in an online post.

'Many people want to join the Campaign for the final push, some from the first two Campaigns - And we want as many as we can get!' Trump wrote.

Kamala Harris lavished praise on Joe Biden Thursday at their first public appearance together since he stepped down as the Democratic presidential nominee.

And he returned the favor by showing a hint that he missed the campaign trail and gave Donald Trump a nickname.

But many of the crowd weren't there to hear it - dozens of people made for the exits as Biden spoke.

The crowd, filled with many of Harris' sorority sisters, was clearly hyped up to see her. After she spoke, introduced Biden and gave him a hug, the crowd started to disperse.

Harris herself even departed the stage for Biden's speech but she came back at the end for the traditional photoshoot of the two of them holding hands, arms raised in victory.

President Joe Biden attempted to hurl a zinger in former President Donald Trump's direction as he departed the White House Thursday.

The 81-year-old president was asked to respond to Trump's promise to 'Make America Affordable Again.'

'He ought to get a job,' Biden said.

The president also said that Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic nominee, wouldn't distance herself from his economic policies.

'She's not going to,' he told reporters on the White House's South Lawn.

He suggested that 'Bidenomics' would continue in a future Harris administration.

'In case you haven't noticed, it's working,' the president said.

Biden walked out of the White House with three members of The West Wing cast - Martin Sheen, Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent in Largo, MD

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala appeared together at an official event for the first time since Biden exited the presidential race.

The duo were at Prince George's Community College to discuss lowering costs, including for prescription drugs.

Harris lavished praise on Biden: 'I could speak all afternoon about the person I am standing on this stage with.'

The crowd roared in response. But it was Harris that got a huge ovation. 'We love you,' people shouted as she stepped on stage.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent

President Joe Biden hosted a trio of cast members from The West Wing at the White House Thursday, including President Jed Bartlet - actor Martin Sheen.

Biden walked out to Marine One with actresses Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack, who came out with a West Wing-themed book this week, with Sheen walking behind the group.

Sheen told DailyMail.com that while he was unlikely to head to next week's Democratic National Convention, he would hit the campaign trail on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris.

'You bet, yeah,' he said.

Asked if it was nice being back at the White House, the actor cheekily answered, 'Well, I never lived here really.'

He told reporters that he didn't have any advice for Biden, as he only played a TV president.

But Sheen referred to the 81-year-old as a 'hero.'

Biden answered several questions from reporters and then posed for pictures with Sheen before hopping on his helicopter.

He's hosting an official event with Harris in Maryland Thursday afternoon on lowering prescription drug prices.

The Harris campaign appears to be rejecting a second vice presidential debate after agreeing to the October 1 debate on CBS.

'The debate about debates is over,' said communications director Michael Tyler in a statement. 'Donald Trump's campaign accepted our proposal for three debates — two presidential and a vice presidential debate.'

He noted Trump's campaign has agreed to the September 10 debate between Trump and Kamala Harris, and Walz agreed to the October 1 debate against J.D. Vance.

Tyler also said there will be another Harris-Trump debate in October.

The statement comes after Vance also said he would be willing to debate Walz on CNN on September 18.

The GOP vice presidential nominee responded to the statement on X 'Tim Walz refuses to deploy!'

Vance was referencing Walz's decision to resign from the National Guard before his unit was deployed to Iraq in 2005.

The Secret Service has made another concerning security mishap while protecting former President Donald Trump.

During the former president's campaign rally in Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday afternoon, a female Secret Service agent allegedly left her position without telling the site agent - the individual in charge of security.

The agent departed her post just minutes before Trump's motorcade arrived at the venue to breastfeed her child in a side room meant for agency work, RealClearPolitics first reported.

When the site agent conducted a last-minute walkthrough of the route Trump would take, they noticed the agent's absence and later discovered her with several family members in the side room who were not vetted by security.

Now the Secret Service is investigating the latest mistake for the embattled agency.

Kamala Harris wants to take aim at rising food costs and price-gouging as she starts to lay out her own economic priorities if she win the White House in November.

The vice president heads to North Carolina on Friday to deliver her first address focused on the economy policy nearly a month after jumping into the presidential race with President Biden's exit.

In one of her first economic proposals as Democratic presidential nominee, Harris plans to call for the first ever federal ban on corporate price-gouging, her campaign said.

During her visit to Raleigh, Harris will announce her plan to enact the ban during her first 100 days in office in her effort to address grocery costs as inflation has persisted throughout much of the past four years under the Biden administration.

While it is not exactly clear how the proposal would be enforced, the campaign said in its release that the plan would 'set clear rules' so corporations 'can't unfairly exploit consumers.'

A federal agent tasked with securing a J.D. Vance event last week broke protocol by sporting the insignia of another agency, DailyMail.com has learned.

The breach came from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agent who was tasked with conducting security bag checks outside of the August 7 event near Detroit, Michigan.

A photograph of the agent reveals he was wearing a Secret Service patch on his armored vest despite not being a part of the department.

Already mired with controversy since the shooting at Donald Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, one month ago, the Secret Service broke protocol once again, and admit it never should have happened.

‘Secret Service providing patches to other agencies is not standard practice,’ a source familiar with the matter told DailyMail.com. 'It’s definitely against agency protocol.'

The former president's sentencing is currently set for September 18 after he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to 'hush money' payments to Stormy Daniels.

His attorneys asked Judge Juan Merchan to delay that date until after the election on November 5.

They write that the delay would 'mitigate the asserted conflicts and appearances of impropriety' and 'naked election-interference.'

'There is no basis for continuing to rush,' the filing goes on.

When Minnesota first ran for Congress in 2006, his campaign repeatedly gave false statements about his DUI arrest in 1995.

After the incident was exposed by Republicans his campaign manager Kerry Greeley told the Rochester Post Bulletin that hearing loss played a role rather than being drunk.

'He couldn't understand what the officer was saying to him,' Greeley told the paper.

His spokesperson was also quoted in the NUJournal claiming the officer refused to speak up.

Walz did have surgery for long-term ear damage in 2005, ten years later, but when he was arrested his blood alcohol level was .128, above the legal limit.

But Walz and his lawyer both acknowledged he had been drinking according to court documents when he pleaded guilty to reckless driving.

It's also not how arresting officer Steve Rasgorshek remembered the incident.

'I don't recall him saying "I have a problem hearing." I can tell you if he did say that, I would have spoken up, but I can also tell you that I am not a quiet individual,' arresting officer Steve Rasgorshek told the DailyMail.com about what happened.

'If he's allowing people to say something like this about something that happened 29 years ago, he should acknowledge it, address it, and it would be done with,' he said.

During a spring Capitol Hill hearing, House GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., accused Columbia's leadership of refusing to 'enforce their own policies and condemn Jewish hatred on campus,' creating a 'breeding ground for antisemitism.'

Stefanik, in a statement to DailyMail.com on Wednesday, cheered the ousting of Shafik following the resignations of Harvard President Claudine Gay and Yale President Liz Magill.

'THREE DOWN, so many to go,' she said.

'Columbia University's President Minouche Shafik's failed presidency was untenable and that it was only a matter of time before her forced resignation,' Stefanik explained to DailyMail.com.

'After failing to protect Jewish students and negotiating with pro Hamas terrorists, this forced resignation is long overdue. We will continue to demand moral clarity, condemnation of antisemitism, protection of Jewish students and faculty, and stronger leadership from American higher education institutions.'

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will make their first official appearance together on Thursday since he dropped out of the 2024 race.

They attend an event at a community college in Maryland to talk about lowering costs.

Federal officials made a deal with drug companies to lower the price for 10 of Medicare´s most popular and costliest drugs.

White House officials said Wednesday night they expect U.S. taxpayers to save $6 billion on the new prices, while older Americans could save roughly $1.5 billion on their medications.

Harris will double down on 'price cuts' in her presidential campaign.

At a rally on Friday in North Carolina, she will unveil a proposed ban on ‘price gouging’ in the grocery and food industries, her campaign said.

A local news radio station in North Dakota is considering legal action after Kamala Harris' campaign edited one of its headlines in a campaign advertisement to make it look like they supported her.

WDAY Radio, based in Fargo, said one of their stories was deceptively used in a Google ad and reached out to the Harris campaign to demand they stop using it.

But the station didn't get a response, and now they are hitting back.

'We feel insulted and violated by what was done here,' Flag Family Media President and Managing Partner Steve Hallstrom told WZFG on Wednesday.

'A political campaign used our news brand and our URL to lie to people about the headline we wrote.'

'We didn’t write that headline. We didn’t write anything close to it. We didn’t write a news story about that,' he said.

'They lied to every single person that saw that ad. It’s misleading, it’s dishonest and it really hurts our news brand.'

'And we are considering all our options here, including legal action,' he said. 'What’s been done here is wrong. This isn’t a grey area matter.'

Joe Rogan gushed about Kamala Harris on a recent episode of his podcast - praising her Atlanta speech and saying she 'crushed it.'

In an episode featuring guest comic and actor Adam Ray, Rogan said Harris had a 'banger of a speech' last month in Atlanta.

As the pair discussed how a debate between Trump and Harris would go down, Rogan referenced the speech last month - saying that the current Vice President 'crushed' it.

Rogan said this will be a 'problem' for Trump - who has been hesitant to commit to a debate against Harris.

'I do have to say that one speech she gave right after they decided she was going to be the nominee, that one speech where she said, "If you're going to say something, why don't you say it to my face?" It was great timing,' Rogan admitted.

Pro-Palestinian groups are planning to bus tens of thousands of protesters into Chicago next week to demonstrate at the Democratic National Convention.

Fervent critics of America's support for Israel in the war in Gaza insist their plans haven't changed since Joe Biden dropped out of the race and Kamala Harris took the nomination, even though she is more sympathetic to Palestinians.

Hatem Abudayyeh, the national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network advocacy group, told NBC demonstrators will be bussed in from nearby states.

He added that there was a virtual meeting held with members after Biden ended his presidential bid, and they agreed nothing would change.

'We’re not going to do anything different. We’re going to mobilize,' Abudayyeh said.

'Harris represents the administration; she represents Biden. There is nothing that she has expressed independently that tells us she does not support the policies'.

Harris is set to formally accept the Democratic nomination for president in her speech to the convention on Thursday night.

Biden will speak on the opening night and be followed by the likes of Barack Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton and a host of celebrities.

Joe Biden may have ended his reelection effort but almost six in 10 voters think he should go further and stand down as president.

The 81-year-old bowed to pressure last month and stepped aside as the Democratic nominee for the presidential election after enduring weeks of scrutiny following a disastrous debate performance.

Now voters are wondering whether he is fit enough to lead the country if he is not fit enough to run again.

A whopping 57 percent of likely voters polled by J.L. Partners said they believe the nation's oldest president should resign now.

Those numbers include almost half of Democrats or 47 percent.