Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump dances on stage after speaking during a campaign rally at Thomas & Mack Center, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Las Vegas.
| Photo Credit: AP

Donald Trump said Thursday (October 24, 2024) that China’s leader would handle Vice President Kamala Harris “like a baby” if she’s elected to the White House, as the former President and his top allies increasingly have moved to infantilise the Democratic nominee.

“If somehow Kamala wins, she’d have to deal with Xi Jinping,” conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt said of the Chinese President. “How would he handle her?”

Mr. Trump replied, “Like a baby.”

“He’d take all the candy away very quickly,” Mr. Trump continued. “She wouldn’t have any idea what happened. It would be like a grand chess master playing a beginner.”

Mr. Trump has built his political career around name-calling, inventing jeers for his opponents going back to his first run for President in 2016, when he slammed Republican primary rivals like “Low Energy” Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, and “Little” Marco Rubio, the Florida senator. The former President also has a long history of belittling women.

But Mr. Trump has unleashed a special array of personal — often condescending — attacks against Ms. Harris, from calling her “lazy” — a word long used to demean Black people in racist terms — to insisting she’s a “stupid person” and asking whether she is “on drugs.” He’s also called Ms. Harris, the first woman of colour to lead a major-party ticket, “slow” and has accused her of having a “low IQ.”

The latest line of attack, combining sexism and deeply personal jeers with referring to Ms. Harris as a child, comes with Election Day now barely a week off. His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the remarks.

The former President, who has escalated his already dark and inflammatory rhetoric in the race’s final stretch, spoke at a rally later Thursday in Tempe, Arizona, where he criticised Ms. Harris’ handling of immigration. He accused Ms. Harris of perpetrating “a wicked betrayal of America” and having “orchestrated the most egregious betrayal that any leader in American history has ever inflicted upon our people,” even though crime is down.

During an evening event in Las Vegas, Mr. Trump compared Ms. Harris to “a vulture” in the way he characterised her approach to tax increases.

“Even after Kamala wrecked your economy with inflation, she came after you with tip income, like sort of like a vulture would do,” Mr. Trump said. “If she gets four more years, Kamala Harris will pick your pockets.”

Mr. Harris has offered her own share of insults against Mr. Trump, calling him “increasingly unhinged and unstable.” During a CNN town hall Wednesday she also called Mr. Trump a “fascist.” She was set to join a rally Thursday night in the Atlanta suburbs with former President Barack Obama and musician Bruce Springsteen.

In his Thursday morning interview with Mr. Hewitt, Mr. Trump said he watched Ms. Harris’ town hall on CNN and described her as coming off “like a child, almost.”

“She’s an empty vessel,” Mr. Trump said. “But she’s beautifully pushed around by a very smart, very powerful, very liberal, viciously liberal but very, very smart, powerful party called the Democrats.” Some of Mr. Trump’s allies have used similar attack lines. On Wednesday, former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson was warming up the crowd at a Trump rally in Georgia when he suggested that Mr. Trump was ready to punish the Vice President.

“Dad is pissed,” Mr. Carlson told the crowd. “And when dad gets home, you know what he says? You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl, and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now.’”