President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are set for their most direct confrontation to date this week in a battleground state play for working-class voters, further illustrating how both men have increasingly turned their attention to a likely rematch ahead of schedule.
The matchup is one both campaigns had seen as inevitable, but sources acknowledge it has kicked off earlier than had been anticipated. Biden’s decision to join striking autoworkers in Michigan on Tuesday — after Trump had already announced plans to meet with voters — comes as Trump is treating his own party’s primary campaign as more of a coronation.
At a Labor Day rally in Philadelphia, Biden blasted Trump, but not by name, instead calling him the “great real estate builder” for having reneged on his plans for a major infrastructure bill. The following week Biden branded him “Donald Hoover Trump” for being just the second president to have left office with fewer Americans working than when he started. And at recent fundraisers in New York, Biden has been test-driving even more pointed criticisms of Trump as a threat to democracy, which will be a theme of another major speech this week in the battleground state of Arizona.
R&I – TP
Mariam
Article URL : https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/president-biden-pivots-focusing-trump-earlier-expected-rcna111415