Vice President Kamala Harris is "imploding" during the presidential campaign's final weeks as Donald Trump builds support in key battleground states, the former president told backers Thursday night at a rally in the swing state of Nevada.
Trump suggested Democrats would have been more competitive heading into the Nov. 5 election had President Joe Biden not been replaced by Harris, who received her party's nomination despite not running in the primaries.
"She got no votes, and now she's imploding worse than him," Trump said at the Las Vegas rally, which was televised live by Newsmax. "She's actually imploding. If you take a look. Because, look, I'm not supposed to say it, but we are leading by so much.
"Right now, we're leading by a lot in Nevada. We're leading by a lot in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. Even states that are typically never in play for 50, 60, 70 years, they're getting close. 'Sir, New Hampshire is in play.' I said, 'Oh, that's nice. Let's make a trip.'"
The former president admitted he was speaking confidently against the advice of his team.
"We're leading in Michigan by a lot. We're leading in Wisconsin by a lot. We're leading Pennsylvania by a lot. But I'm not supposed to say that. Just forget it. Pretend it's close, everybody has to know," he said.
"They're afraid that if you hear that, they're not going to vote. I said, 'Well, it's a double-edged sword. You know, if we're leading by a lot, they won't think about cheating as much as if we're just leading by a little bit.' Because we got to stop. We got to make these elections honorable and honest, and we're going to do it."
Trump began his remarks by saying that Harris performed miserably Thursday during an appearance in Georgia.
"They say that Kamala has just absolutely bombed. She's bombed. It's the big story," he said. "In fact, I was going to watch it. I didn't want to come out. I wanted to watch that first. Isn't that terrible? Then I could explain to you what happened. But I hear it was bad tonight. But it's always bad. It's always bad."
He also referenced Harris' appearance at a CNN town hall on Wednesday.
"After all the catastrophes that she has caused, Kamala Harris can't say one thing that she'd do differently," Trump said. "Did you see that the other night? Would you name one thing? How about 20? Would you name, like 25? 30?"
The rally crowd included former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., former NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who at a Tuesday rally, announced she was joining the GOP.
Trump touched on various issues including the economy, tax cuts, energy, the environment, immigration, tariffs, China, and Russia. He promised a new "golden age" for the country if he's returned to the White House.
"But I'm asking you to be excited about the future of our country again. You're going to be excited. Because this will be America's new golden age," he said. "It's going to be the golden age of America. You watch, you watch, and we're off to a little bit of a bad start because we're starting around the minus-30-yard line. But we'll catch up fast."
As the crowd chanted "USA, USA," Trump said he felt "pent-up" energy, "like a boiler ready to explode."
"We can't take any chances. Got to get out and vote. That's why they say, Don't say how well we're doing, Sir, please, please," Trump said. "If you say how well, they'll say, Oh, we don't have to vote .... and then they throw a couple of more votes in there right now. We can't let that happen."