Donald Trump compliments 'beautiful' Kamala Harris that 'looks like Melania' on TIME cover
Trump has praised the Vice President's appearance on the cover of Time
Reuters/Time
Donald Trump compared Vice President Kamala Harris to his wife Melania adding his Democrat rival looked "like the most beautiful actress ever to live."
The Republican was speaking in an informal interview with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Musk, a keen Trump supporter, exchanged praise with the former President, with the Tesla chief lauding Trump for his bravery during the attempt on his life last month, and Trump congratulating Musk for his willingness to fire workers demanding better conditions.
It comes as Kamala Harris has dominated headlines with a series of high-energy rallies since she replaced Biden as the party's candidate three weeks ago.
Trump has praised the Vice President's appearance on the cover of Time
Reuters/Time
Trump insulted Harris several times, referring to her as "third rate", "incompetent" and "a radical left lunatic." But then he praised her looks.
Trump said about a picture of Harris on the cover of Time magazine: "She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live...It was a drawing, and actually, she looked very much like a great first lady, Melania."
He also expressed anger that Harris had been swapped in for Biden on the Democratic ticket.
"She hasn't done an interview since this whole scam started," Trump said, claiming that Biden dropping off the ticket was a "coup."
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Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket
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A longstanding critic of electric vehicles, Trump has flipped on the position since Musk's endorsement. On Monday, he described the electric cars made by Tesla as "incredible."
He also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, all authoritarian strongmen, as at the "top of their game."
The conversation on X was delayed after technical problems pushed back the start of the event by 40 minutes. Musk blamed the difficulties on a distributed denial-of-service attack, in which a server or network is flooded with traffic in an attempt to shut it down, though his claim could not be verified.
Trump sought to turn the problems into a positive, congratulating Musk on the number of people trying to tune in. A counter on X showed as many as 1.3 million people were listening at times during the lengthy conversation.
Trump praised Vladimir Putin
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In a statement after the interview, a Harris campaign spokesperson, Joseph Costello, said: "Trump's entire campaign is in service of people like Elon Musk and himself — self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a livestream in the year 2024."
Trump returned to the platform with a series of posts for the first time in a year, reviving an account that had served as a main method of communication in previous campaigns and his four years in the White House, including his followers' January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Trump's access to his account, @realDonaldTrump, was restored a month into Musk's ownership of X after being suspended by the platform's previous owners following the January 6 attack, citing concerns he would incite violence.
Trump frequently posts on his Truth Social platform, which was launched in February 2022, but his posts there reach a much smaller audience than on X.