Donald Trump has dismissed calls for him to rein in personal attacks on Kamala Harris, insisting in a press conference lasting more than an hour in New Jersey that he was “leading in the polls” and would defeat the vice-president by a wide margin in November.
Senior Republicans have urged the former president to tone down his rhetoric against Harris, who has opened up a lead in this year’s White House race since replacing Joe Biden as the Democratic party’s presidential candidate last month.
Trump’s primary opponents Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and his 2016 campaign manager Kellyanne Conway have said he should spend less time attacking his opponent and focus on his proposals for immigration and the US economy.