Former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during his campaign event in Racine, Wisconsin, US, June 18, 2024.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump on Saturday gave a brief glimpse of the ammunition he is loading against President Joe Biden's handling of the economy ahead of the first presidential debate next week.
During his roughly 80-minute keynote speech at a conference for the evangelical advocacy group Coalition for Faith and FreedomTrump launched a wave of attacks on Biden, including on economic issues such as inflation, climate infrastructure spending and the growing federal deficit.
On inflation specifically, Trump foreshadowed a tactic he said he could use in the upcoming debate against Biden on June 27.
'I have such a little thing. I shouldn't show it. Maybe I should save it for the debate,” Trump said just before pulling out a miniature box of Tic Tac candies and holding a regular-sized box next to it.
'Inflation, this is what it does to you. This is now Tic Tacs,” Trump continued, gesturing to the miniature box as the crowd roared with laughter. “That's what inflation has done. I'm glad everyone in this room has good eyesight. But I will put an end to Biden's inflation nightmare.”
Trump's Tic Tac rally represents a phenomenon Biden himself has called “shrinkflation,” the practice of selling smaller items for the same price. The White House has used “shrinkflation” as an attack on companies they claim are keeping consumer prices artificially high.
But something like Trump's Tic Tac stunt won't be allowed at Thursday's debate, where props and pre-written notes are banned. Ultimately, it underscores how Trump will have to deal with debate's limitations on the kind of theater that resonates at his voter rallies.
The televised debate will have no in-person viewing audience and microphones that will be muted when a candidate is not speaking. These restrictions are intended to limit disruptions in hopes of preventing a repeat of the 2020 debates, when both Biden and Trump struggled to make a statement about the other's interruption.
Trump's comments on Saturday give the Biden campaign a high-level preview of the talking points that could emerge in Thursday's showdown as both candidates prepare to take on the other.
“Under Biden, the economy is in shambles,” Trump said on Saturday.
“Trump's incoherent, unhinged tirade showed voters in his own words that he is a threat to our freedoms and too dangerous to be allowed anywhere near the White House again,” Biden-Harris 2024 spokesperson said Sarafina Chitika in a statement in response to Trump's speech on Saturday. speech.
The former president's economic platform has so far centered around a hardline tariff policy on all imports, pressuring the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and extend his first term of tax cuts. Economists expect these proposals will fuel inflation if they come into effect.
On Saturday, Trump also doubled down on his proposal to eliminate taxes on tipped income, walking back previous comments about cutting Social Security benefits.
“As president, I will not cut a dime from Social Security or Medicare,” Trump said months after saying he would consider cuts to Social Security in an interview on CNBC's “Squawk Box.”
