Former President Donald Trump responded to Vice President Kamala Harris’ selection of Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday with an uncharacteristically short statement that didn’t mention the Minnesota governor by name.
The GOP presidential nominee shared a cryptic post on his social media platform, Truth Social, shortly after Harris announced her pick that simply stated: “THANK YOU!”
The typically reactionary Trump waited another roughly five hours to directly address the news: “This is the most Radical Left duo in American history,” the former president posted on Truth Social. “There has never been anything like it, and there never will be again.”
So far, Republicans appear to be struggling to come up with a cohesive line of attack against Walz.
He went on in his 40-word missive to baselessly suggest that there is a “BIG MOVEMENT” to “BRING BACK CROOKED JOE,” an apparent reference to President Joe Biden, who withdrew his re-election bid last month amid pressure from top Democrats and donors.
Trump followed that up with a longer exploration of his apparent fantasy that Biden will try to “take back the Nomination” when he attends the Democratic National Convention next week.
“He feels he made a historically tragic mistake by handing over the U.S. Presidency, a COUP, to the people in the World he hates most, and he wants it back, NOW!!!” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Though it seems clear Trump would rather face Biden in November, there’s no indication the president is seeking to undermine Harris, whom Biden endorsed upon dropping out of the race and who formally secured the Democratic nomination on Monday.
So far, Republicans appear to be struggling to come up with a cohesive line of attack against Walz, with some desperately taking shots at Walz because he created a Beyoncé Day last year ahead of her Renaissance Tour stop in Minneapolis. Others have accused the Democratic Party of being antisemitic because Harris, whose husband is Jewish, passed over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate.
“No Jews allowed at the top of the Democratic Party,” conservative radio host Erick Erickson tweeted on Tuesday, to which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, replied: “News to me.”
Trump will surely adopt a few talking points against Walz as the campaign goes on, but that his initial reaction was void of Walz-focused barbs and centered instead on an imagined scenario about Biden making a comeback is eyebrow-raising and, well, kind of … weird.
