Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he intends to task billionaire Elon Musk, to whom he is close, with leading a reform of the American administration if he is elected to the White House.
During a speech on his economic program in New York, the Republican presidential candidate assured that Elon Musk had “accepted” the mission of “conducting this complete audit.”
Two months to the day before the American election on November 5, the septuagenarian has pledged to make the United States “the world capital of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.”
“Instead of attacking the industries of the future, we will support them,” he said in a particularly disjointed speech, during which he also criticized the Biden administration’s investments in climate.
The former president especially accused his Democratic rival Kamala Harris of wanting to implement a “radical left program” which, according to him, poses a “fundamental threat to the prosperity of every American family.”
– Harris in Pennsylvania –
A few hundred kilometers away, the American vice-president arrived in Pennsylvania, perhaps the most crucial state in the presidential election.
Donald Trump won by a hair’s breadth in 2016 and Joe Biden by a hair’s breadth in 2020.
The vote is expected to be very close again, and the United States is worried about attempted Russian interference, against which it announced a battery of measures on Wednesday.
Without responding directly to these accusations, Russian President Vladimir Putin assured Thursday, not without sarcasm, that he “supports” Kamala Harris. “She has such an expressive and contagious laugh that it shows that she is doing well,” he added with a smile.
Kamala Harris’ laughter is often ridiculed by American conservatives, led by Donald Trump.
The White House responded by urging Vladimir Putin to “stop interfering” in the presidential election.
The two candidates will face off in their first debate in Philadelphia on September 10, broadcast by ABC.
The latter revealed the rules of this 90-minute duel, which gave rise to tough negotiations between the two camps.
They will be the same as during the now famous June debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, completely botched by the Democratic president, to the point of leading to his withdrawal from the race for the White House on July 21.
On Tuesday, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will be standing behind their lecterns, without notes and without an audience, and their speaking time will be strictly controlled.
– Microphones cut –
Each candidate’s microphone will only be turned on when it is their turn to speak – the Kamala Harris campaign had pushed for the microphones to remain on throughout, no doubt calculating that this would be detrimental to Donald Trump, who is notoriously prone to outbursts.
The first exchange is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. local time (1:00 a.m. GMT on September 11).
On Wednesday, during a Fox News panel, Donald Trump accused ABC of being biased and claimed without evidence that Kamala Harris would receive questions in advance.
“They’re really bad, and I think a lot of people will be watching to see how bad they are, how unfair they are,” the 78-year-old Republican lamented.
The vice president, better positioned in national voting intentions than Joe Biden, but still neck and neck with Donald Trump in the most contested states, continues to repeat that nothing is decided.
“This race will be tight until the last minute. Let’s not pay too much attention to the polls, because we are not the favorites,” she warned again on Wednesday.
US President Joe Biden, who has so far played a carefully defined supporting role in Kamala Harris’ campaign, was in Wisconsin on Thursday, where he accused Donald Trump of leaving power in 2021 with an economy that was “faltering” and a pandemic that was “raging”.
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