Trump blamed Harris for the high prices, effectively reversing her comments at her rally in Raleigh, North Carolina on Friday, when she said Trump’s proposed import tariffs would amount to a “Trump tax” on food. The former president argued that she had introduced a “Kamala Harris inflation tax” on average Americans during her tenure as vice president and that if elected, he would lower prices on consumer goods, just as she had said she would.

“Yesterday she stood up and started ranting and raving,” Trump said of Harris’s explanation of her economic agenda in North Carolina. He mocked her remarks, which he said suggested he would tax “everything that has ever been invented.”

Trump’s advisers urged him to emphasize his economic plans, which polls show many voters trust more than Ms. Harris’s. And some Republicans hoped he would abandon his trademark personal attacks, including his frequent insults about Harris’ intelligence and looks.

But at two events earlier this week – a speech in Asheville, North Carolina, and a press conference in Bedminster, New Jersey – both billed as opportunities to discuss the economy, Trump drifted into personal attacks against Ms Harris, which he said he had “the right” to do.

Mr Trump opened his rally in Pennsylvania, his last before the Democratic National Convention, which begins in Chicago on Monday, with a theme on inflation and the economy. But he quickly said: “You don’t mind if I lose the teleprompter for a second, do you?” and added of Ms Harris: “Joe Biden hates her.”

He continued to attack Ms Harris for her “crazy” laugh and said he was “way better looking than her,” a comment that drew cheers from the thousands of protesters at Mohegan Sun Arena.

In a statement, Joseph Costello, spokesman for Harris’ campaign, said Trump was trying to distract from his “dangerous” agenda by resorting to “lies, insults and confused tirades.”

Mr Trump also said Democrats would hold a “rigged convention” next week because Ms Harris entered the race after a primary in which millions of voters cast their ballots for President Biden. Mr Biden dropped out of the race in July and endorsed the vice president, who moved quickly to unite delegates behind her.

Mr Trump reiterated his campaign promise to increase oil and gas production and then attacked Ms Harris for calling for a ban on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) during her 2020 presidential campaign.

Harris’ campaign has said it no longer supports such a ban. Pennsylvania, a major natural gas producer, could benefit economically from increased fracking, even though the process poses the risk of air and water pollution. And Trump’s calls to “drill, baby, drill” were particularly audible in Wilkes-Barre, a region of northeastern Pennsylvania historically dominated by anthracite coal mining.

Trump also continued to try to woo American Jews, who are overwhelmingly liberal, away from the Democratic Party, claiming that Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, was not selected as Ms. Harris’s vice presidential running mate because of his religion.

“They rejected him because he’s Jewish,” Trump said, adding, “I don’t think he’s a good person.”

As Ms. Harris was choosing her vice presidential candidate, Mr. Shapiro faced a pressure campaign from activists who thought he was too pro-Israel. Mr. Shapiro rejects the notion that his religious identity played a role in Ms. Harris’s decision.

Yet Trump, who was accused of encouraging white supremacists during his presidency, invoked the Holocaust when warning of widespread anti-Semitism in America and insisted – as he has before – that Jews who vote Democratic should “submit a brain scan.”

Both Trump and Harris are particularly focused on Pennsylvania, a swing state that has the potential to decide the election. Trump won the state by a narrow margin in 2016 but lost it to Biden in 2020.

Both campaign teams are holding events in the state in the coming days. On Sunday, Harris and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, will take a bus tour of Western Pennsylvania. On Monday, Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, will make separate campaign stops in York, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia.