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Trump lists his grievances in a Wisconsin speech intended to link Harris to illegal immigration

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, Wisconsin — Former President Donald Trump meandered Saturday through a list of grievances against Vice President Kamala Harris and other issues during an event intended to link his Democratic opponent to illegal border crossings.

A day after Harris discussed immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump spoke to a crowd in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, about immigration. He blamed Harris for migrants committing crimes after entering the U.S. illegally, alleging she was responsible for “erasing our border.”

“I will liberate Wisconsin from the mass migrant invasion,” he said. “We’re going to liberate the country.”

Trump hopes frustration over illegal immigration will translate to votes in Wisconsin and other crucial swing states. The Republican nominee has denounced people who cross the U.S.-Mexico border as “poisoning the blood of the country” and vowed to stage the largest deportation operation in American history if elected. And polls show Americans believe Trump would do a better job than Harris on handling immigration.

Trump shifted from topic to topic so quickly that it was hard to keep track of what he meant at times. He talked about the two assassination attempts against him and blamed the U.S. Secret Service for not being able to hold a large outdoor rally instead of an event in a smaller indoor space. But he also offered asides about climate change, Harris’ father, how his beach body was better than President Joe Biden’s, and a fly that was buzzing near him.

“I wonder where the fly came from,” he said. “Two years ago, I wouldn’t have had a fly up here. You’re changing rapidly. But we can’t take it any longer. We can’t take it any longer.”

Trump repeatedly brought up Harris’ Friday event in Douglas, Arizona, where she announced a push to further restrict asylum claims beyond Biden’s executive order announced earlier this year. Harris denounced Trump’s handling of the border while president and his opposing a bipartisan border package earlier this year, saying Trump “prefers to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”

“I had to sit there and listen” to Harris last night Trump said, eliciting cheers. “And who puts it on? Fox News. They should not be allowed to put it on. It’s all lies. Everything she says is lies.”

The Republican nominee also intensified his personal attacks against Harris, insulting her as “mentally impaired” and a “disaster.”

Trump professed not to understand what Harris meant when she said he was responsible for taking children from their parents. Under his administration, border agents separated children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border in a policy that was condemned globally as inhumane and one that Trump himself ended under pressure from his own party.

Harris, at a rally in San Francisco, told supporters there were “two very different visions for our nation” and voters see it “every day on the campaign trail.”

“Donald Trump is the same old tired show,” she said. “The same tired playbook we have heard for years.”

She said Trump was “a very unserious man.” “However, the consequences of putting him back in the White House are extremely serious.”

At Trump’s event, on either side of the stage were poster-sized mug shots of men in the U.S. illegally accused of a crime, including Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate, a case Trump cited in his speech.

Wisconsin Republicans in recent days have cited the story of Coronel Zarate’s arrest in Prairie du Chien as more evidence that people in the country illegally are committing crimes across the United States, not just in southern border states. Prosecutors charged Coronel Zarate on September 18 with sexual assault, child abuse, strangulation and domestic abuse. His lawyers declined to comment. 
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US town divided by factory deal as candidates compete to be toughest on China

In the American Midwest, a local fight over a Chinese electric vehicle battery factory reflects broader controversy over Chinese investments in the U.S. VOA’s Calla Yu reports on how the issue of U.S.-China competition is playing out in a small city in Michigan during this year’s U.S. presidential election. Videographer: Yu Gang
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Probe finds Beijing seeking to mislead, sow distrust ahead of US election

washington — U.S. intelligence agencies this week emphasized that Russia, Iran and China remain the primary external forces attempting to influence American voters ahead of the November presidential election. 

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence reported that the Kremlin is the most active player, using artificial intelligence, fake accounts and fabricated images to promote narratives favorable to Donald Trump’s candidacy. 

In contrast, China has not sought to directly influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential race. Sarah Cook, an independent analyst specializing in disinformation, noted that this restraint stems partly from a strong bipartisan consensus in Washington regarding the threat posed by China’s authoritarian government.

With less than 40 days remaining until the U.S. elections, what narratives is China promoting on social media, and how might these affect American voters? 

Amplifying polarization 

A joint investigation by Voice of America and the Doublethink Lab, a Taiwanese social media analytics firm, is tracking 201 China-related accounts on the social media platform X. One of the main themes of these accounts is amplifying controversial domestic issues in the United States, aiming to deepen societal polarization and sow distrust. 

Through both genuine and AI-generated images and videos, Chinese operatives are intensifying divisive social issues, including LGBTQ+ rights, abortion, immigration, race, gun control and crime rates. 

One prominent account, CongCong, frequently originates posts that are then shared by others, describing herself as “a sweet and salty little girl who takes life seriously and shares positive energy.” 

However, her posts are far from positive. One pinned post features a provocative image of a gun pointed at Gaza, captioned with claims of genocide, depicting Israel as the gunman, the U.S. as the weapon, and the EU as the silencer. 

The post was amplified by 40 accounts in the network of China-related accounts VOA is tracking. 

Another so-called seeder account, Little Sister Muxi, shared a comparative graphic highlighting the burdens faced by Americans, such as student loans and health care costs, versus the benefits enjoyed by Israelis.

The Israel-Gaza conflict has become a sharply polarizing issue in the U.S. Some Americans support Israel’s right to self-defense, while others express strong discontent with what they see as excessive violence. 

Recently, the network has sought to amplify discussions surrounding Intel’s announcement of a 15% workforce reduction, with seeder account CongCong asserting, “This is the decline of the United States, a recession created by the United States itself.” This message was shared by 36 accounts.

Other examples include sharing cartoons from China’s state-owned Global Times that mock the U.S. for its financial support of Ukraine. 

AI-generated images depict homeless Americans, implying that U.S. citizens are neglected while the government spends billions on overseas conflicts.

Fake videos illustrating America’s drug epidemic are also common, pushed by the Spamouflage network — a much larger state-sponsored operation aimed at supporting the Chinese government while undermining critics. 

This approach mirrors Russia’s tactics during the 2016 U.S. elections, employing information warfare to fracture Western alliances and deepen societal divisions. 

MAGAflage 

Our investigation has uncovered two “MAGAflage” networks consisting of a total of 25 accounts posing as supporters of Republican candidate Trump, seeking to engage with real American voters. 

One network, labeled MAGAflage 1 and consisting of 10 accounts, began sharing pro-Trump content extensively following a July 13 assassination attempt. Using stolen bios and sourced photos, these accounts focused on pro-China content and polarizing U.S. issues while promoting Trump as the savior of America. After VOA’s report, X suspended these accounts for “violating X’s rules.”

Whereas the seeder account in the MAGAflage 1 network aggressively posted pro-China content and frequently cited state media outlets, the seeder of MAGAflage 2 takes a more careful approach. Apart from a few exceptions, this person rarely posts about topics directly related to China and stays closer to U.S. election topics.   

All accounts use emoticons in their usernames. Twelve of the 15 accounts use the American flag as one of the emoticons. 

They criticize the Biden administration’s immigration policy, promote conspiracy theories and claim that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is responsible for the January 6 Capitol riot. 

“These accounts are noteworthy because they go to a great extent to pretend to be American citizens and tried to hide their connection to China,” Jasper Hewitt, a digital intelligence analyst at Doublethink Lab, told VOA Mandarin. 

Notably, these accounts do not promote anti-Israel content that other trolls frequently share. Trump recently touted himself as Israel’s “protector,” warning Jewish voters against supporting Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I think this shows that the people behind these operations have a good understanding of the type of content that might resonate with the users they are trying to interact with,” Hewitt added. 

Meanwhile, researchers continue to uncover accounts attacking candidates from both parties. Microsoft recently reported a Chinese-linked threat actor, Storm-1852, which has engaged with election-related content on social media, emphasizing a highly interactive approach that includes reposting content, replying to comments and polling users. 

This network does not appear to favor any specific candidate.

“It is true that most of the Spamouflage content we have seen so far expresses criticism for both candidates. However, the fact that we found two MAGAflage networks and have not yet encountered any similar accounts that support Harris is still very relevant,” Hewitt from Doublethink Lab added. 

Local candidates 

In their latest assessment, the U.S. intelligence officials have said most Chinese efforts are aimed not at Trump or Harris, but at state and local candidates perceived as hostile to Beijing.

Our investigation identified a TikTok video criticizing Republican U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, mocking his persistent questioning of Intel executives about forced labor in Xinjiang and labeling him an “anti-China senator.” Hawley is up for re-election this year.

Another video ridicules Democratic U.S. Representative Jerry Nadler from New York, suggesting he appeared to doze off during a hearing while victims’ families testified. 

Alongside the presidential election, all 435 House seats and 33 Senate seats will be contested this year. Lawmakers critical of China are likely to become targets of online influence campaigns. 

These include members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, or CECC. Its chair, Massachusetts Representative Jim McGovern, has been outspoken about human rights abuses in China and was barred from entry to China this past July.

New Jersey Republican Representative Chris Smith, co-chair of the commission, has long focused on human rights and religious freedom in China. 

In the Senate, Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown is seeking re-election this year and has faced attacks from Chinese state media for advocating a ban on Chinese-made electric vehicles. 
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Harris visits Border Patrol leaders in Arizona

DOUGLAS, Arizona — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris walked a scrubby stretch of fence line along Arizona’s border with Mexico on Friday, seeking to project an image of strength against illegal migration as she confronts one of her biggest vulnerabilities in the November election.

In her first trip to the international boundary since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris chatted with local Border Patrol leaders as they strode along a rust-colored stretch of wall built during Barack Obama’s presidency. Temperatures in Douglas, Arizona, neared 37.7 degrees Celsius during a conversation that lasted about half an hour.

“They’ve got a tough job, and they need, rightly, support to do their job,” Harris said of the Border Patrol as she entered the Douglas port of entry for a briefing on efforts to block the flow of fentanyl across the border. “They are very dedicated. And so I’m here to talk with them about what we can continue to do to support them. And also thank them for the hard work they do.”

Later, she was expected to call for further tightening asylum restrictions, moving beyond President Joe Biden’s policy on an issue where her rival, former President Donald Trump, has an edge with voters. Hundreds of people packed into a gymnasium to hear her speak.

Trump and his fellow Republicans have pounded Harris relentlessly over the Biden administration’s record on migration and fault the vice president for spending little time visiting the border during her time in the White House.

Harris will outline her plan to crack down further on asylum claims and keep the restrictions in place longer compared with the executive order that Biden signed this summer, according to a campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity because Harris had not yet made the announcement. The official briefed reporters aboard Air Force 2 en route to Arizona.

Harris arrived by helicopter in Douglas, where she met with Mayor Donald Huish, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels and County Supervisor Ann English, along with Senator Mark Kelly and Attorney General Kris Mayes.

Immigration and border security are top issues in Arizona, the only battleground state that borders Mexico and one that contended with a record influx of asylum-seekers last year. Voters favor Trump on migration, and Harris has gone on offense to improve her standing on the issue and defuse a key line of political attack for Trump.

In nearly every campaign speech she gives, Harris recounts how a sweeping bipartisan package aiming to overhaul the federal immigration system collapsed in Congress earlier this year after Trump urged top Republicans to oppose it.

“The American people deserve a president who cares more about border security than playing political games,” Harris plans to say, according to an excerpt of her remarks previewed by her campaign.

After the immigration legislation stalled, the Biden administration announced rules that bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. Since then, arrests for illegal border crossings have fallen.

Harris will also use her trip to remind voters about her work as attorney general of California in confronting crime along the border. During an August rally in Glendale, outside Phoenix, she talked about helping to prosecute drug- and people-smuggling gangs that operated transnationally and at the border.

“I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won,” Harris said then.

The vice president’s trip to Douglas thrusts the issue of immigration into the brightest spotlight yet less than six weeks before Election Day.

Trump didn’t wait for her to arrive there before pushing back. He pointed Friday to purported data about criminals entering the U.S. illegally in a bid to link Harris to violent crimes committed by migrants. In a scathing diatribe, he said “blood is on her hands.”

“These are hard, tough, vicious criminals that are free to roam in our country,” Trump said at a manufacturing plant in Michigan.

Earlier in the week, he told voters that “when Kamala speaks about the border, her credibility is less than zero.”

The Trump campaign has also countered with its own TV ads deriding the vice president as a failed “border czar.”

“Under Harris, over 10 million illegally here,” said one spot. However, estimates on how many people have entered the country illegally since the start of the Biden administration in 2021 vary widely.

Harris also never held the position of border czar. Instead, her assignment was to tackle the “root causes” of migration from three Central American nations — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — that were responsible for a significant share of border crossers.

The vice president took a long-term approach to an immediate problem, helping persuade multinational corporations and Latin American businesses to invest in the region. That, she argued, would create jobs and give locals more reasons to stay home rather than take the arduous trek north.

Still, Trump has continued to decry an “invasion” of border crossers.

Douglas, where Harris appeared, is an overwhelmingly Democratic border town in GOP-dominated Cochise County, where the Republicans on the board of supervisors are facing criminal charges for refusing to certify the 2022 election results. Trump was in the area last month, using a remote stretch of border wall and a pile of steel beams to draw a contrast between himself and Harris on border security.

The town of 16,000 people has strong ties to its much larger neighbor, Agua Prieta, Mexico, and a busy port of entry that’s slated for a long-sought upgrade. Many locals are as concerned with making legal border crossings more efficient as they are with combatting illegal ones. 
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Harris, Trump vie for battleground state Michigan

Michigan is one of the key swing states that may decide November’s presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara went to Michigan to see what the campaigns are doing.
Camera: Rivan Dwiastono
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US charges Iranians with hacking attempt to disrupt US election

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government said Friday it filed criminal charges against three members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for hacking attempts aimed at disrupting the U.S. presidential election.

The indictment is the latest effort by President Joe Biden’s administration to counter foreign efforts to interfere in the November 5 presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

The U.S. Treasury Department also said it was imposing sanctions on seven members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran has previously denied involvement.

The Trump campaign said in August it had been hacked by Iran but said the perpetrators were not able to get private information. Several news outlets have said they declined to publish internal campaign documents that were offered to them.
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Trump meets Zelenskyy amid tension, Republican criticism of Kyiv

Former U.S. President Donald Trump met Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York, where Trump repeated claims that he would be able to end the war in Ukraine by making a deal with Russia. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Harris will campaign on Arizona’s border with Mexico in attempted show of strength on immigration 

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How do JD Vance and Tim Walz differ on foreign policy?

The foreign policy positions of the two vice presidential candidates are coming into sharper focus. Democratic nominee Tim Walz and Republican nominee JD Vance present distinctly different approaches to global challenges. These contrasting views underscore how each candidate’s foreign policy priorities could influence America’s role on the world stage.
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Newsmax settles Smartmatic defamation suit over 2020 false election claims 

WILMINGTON, Delaware — Newsmax Media reached a confidential settlement of a lawsuit by Smartmatic, the voting machine maker that had alleged it was defamed by the news outlet’s false claims that its machines were rigged to help steal the 2020 U.S. presidential election from Donald Trump, the companies said Thursday. 

The agreement came on the eve of a four-week jury trial, with opening arguments scheduled to begin in Wilmington on September 30.  

“Newsmax is pleased to announce it has resolved the litigation brought by Smartmatic through a confidential settlement,” the company said in a statement. 

Smartmatic also said in a statement it was pleased to have reached a deal. 

“Lying to the American people has consequences. Smartmatic will not stop until the perpetrators are held accountable,” it said.  

Smartmatic sued Newsmax in 2021, alleging it broadcast damaging misinformation falsely claiming the company switched votes in the 2020 election, that its machines had been hacked and that it was funded by corrupt dictators.  

Smartmatic alleged that Newsmax profited from its false reporting. Trump amplified Newsmax’s reporting on social media, and the broadcaster’s audience jumped tenfold after the election, vaulting it over cable news rivals such as CNBC and Fox Business, according to Nielsen Ratings. 

Smartmatic’s machines were used only in Los Angeles County in the 2020 election, and it has said there has never been a security breach with its equipment, which has recorded billions of votes, largely in non-U.S. elections.  

Both Newsmax and Smartmatic’s U.S. affiliate are based in Boca Raton, Florida. 

Newsmax said it had a First Amendment right to report claims by Trump and his supporters, which were often made in court filings challenging the election. 

The company also clarified its reporting about Smartmatic in December 2020 and invited Smartmatic representatives to come on the air to explain their side of the story to Newsmax viewers. Smartmatic did not accept that invitation. 

Newsmax has described its coverage of Smartmatic as “minor.” 

Smartmatic has not publicly estimated the damages at stake, but Newsmax told the court on September 16 that the voting machine company was seeking $400 million to $600 million and described the case as “bet your company” litigation.  

Newsmax had $67 million in assets at the end of 2022, according to a securities filing, and said in a June investor presentation that it hoped to file for a public offering of its stock this year or early 2025. 

“We are now looking forward to our day in court against Fox Corp. and Fox News for their disinformation campaign,” Smartmatic said.  

The company is suing Fox in New York for $2.7 billion. 

False claims about the 2020 election have led to several defamation settlements or verdicts.  

Fox agreed to settle defamation claims by Dominion Voting Systems last year for $787.5 million, which was the biggest defamation settlement by a U.S. media company, according to legal experts. Dominion is also seeking up to $1.6 billion in damages against Newsmax, which is in litigation in the Delaware court. 

A jury decided last year that former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani had to pay more than $148 million in damages to two former Georgia election workers he defamed through false accusations that they helped rig the 2020 election against Trump. Giuliani appealed.
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Former Trump adviser describes China’s ideology as ‘danger to all of us’

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Why are politicians called lame ducks?

Joe Biden is said to be entering the lame-duck period of his presidency, but what does that mean?
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US gun owners’ views unchanged by Trump assassination attempts

U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has been the target of two assassination attempts during this campaign. VOA spoke with some gun owners, who say the shootings have not changed their views on gun laws. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has our story. Some VOA footage by Genia Dulot.
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Harris promises tax breaks, investments for US manufacturers

PITTSBURGH — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said on Wednesday she would offer tax credits to domestic manufacturers and invest in sectors that will “define the next century,” as she detailed her economic plan to boost the U.S. middle class.

Speaking at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, the Democratic candidate in the November 5 presidential election said she would give tax credits to U.S. manufacturers for retooling or rebuilding existing factories and expanding “good union jobs,” and double the number of registered apprenticeships during her first term.

Harris also promised new investments in industries like bio-manufacturing, aerospace, artificial intelligence and clean energy.

Harris’ speech, which lasted just under 40 minutes, did not detail how these policies would work. She highlighted her upbringing by a single mother, in contrast with former President Donald Trump, the wealthy son of a New York real estate developer.

“I have pledged that building a strong middle class will be the defining goal of my presidency,” Harris said, adding that she sees the election as a moment of choice between two “fundamentally different” visions of the U.S. economy held by her and her Republican opponent, Trump.

The vice president and Trump are focusing their campaign messaging on the economy, which Reuters/Ipsos polling shows is voters’ top concern, as the election approaches.

The divide between rich and poor has grown in recent decades. The share of American households in the middle class, defined as those with two-thirds to double that of median household income, has dropped from around 62% in 1970 to 51% in 2023, Pew Research shows. These households’ income has also not grown as fast as those in the top tier.

Harris said she was committed to working with the private sector and entrepreneurs to help grow the middle class. She told the audience that she is “a capitalist” who believes in “free and fair markets,” and described her policies as pragmatic rather than rooted in ideology.

Harris in recent months has blunted Trump’s advantage on the economy, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday showing the Republican candidate with a marginal advantage of 2 percentage points on “the economy, unemployment and jobs,” down from an 11-point lead in late July.

Trump discussed his economic plan in North Carolina on Wednesday and said Harris’ role as vice president gave her the chance now to improve the economic record of the Biden administration.

“Families are suffering now. So if she has a plan, she should stop grandstanding and do it,” he said. While Trump has proposed across-the-board tariffs on foreign-made goods — a proposal backed by a slim majority of voters — Harris is focusing on providing incentives for businesses to keep their operations in the U.S.

Boosting American manufacturing in industries such as semiconductors and bringing back jobs that have moved overseas in recent decades have also been major goals for Biden. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act — all passed in 2021 and 2022 — fund a range of subsidies and tax incentives that encourage companies to place projects in disadvantaged regions.
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Harris to campaign on Arizona’s border with Mexico

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona on Friday as her campaign tries to turn the larger issue of immigration from a liability into a strength and hopes to counter a line of frequent, searing political attacks from former President Donald Trump. 

Her campaign announced Wednesday that Harris would be in Douglas, Arizona, across the border from Agua Prieta, Mexico. 

Trump has built his campaign partly around calling for cracking down on immigration and the southern border, even endorsing using police and the military to carry out mass deportations should he be elected in November. Harris has increasingly tried to seize on the issue and turn it back against her opponent, though polls show voters continue to trust Trump more on it. 

Trump wasted little time reacting to word of Harris’ trip. He told a rally crowd in Mint Hill, North Carolina, that Harris was going to the border “for political reasons” and because “their polls are tanking.” 

“When Kamala speaks about the border, her credibility is less than zero,” Trump said. “I hope you’re going to remember that on Friday. When she tells you about the border, ask her just one simple question: “Why didn’t you do it four years ago?” 

That picks up on a theme Trump mentions at nearly all of his campaign rallies, scoffing at Harris as a former Biden administration “border czar,” arguing that she oversaw softer federal policies that allowed millions of people into the country illegally. 

President Joe Biden tasked Harris with working to address the root causes of immigration patterns that have caused many people fleeing violence and drug gangs in Central America to head to the U.S. border and seek asylum, though she was not called border czar. 

Since taking over for Biden at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, Harris has leaned into her experience as a former attorney general of California, saying that she frequently visited the border and prosecuted drug- and people-smuggling gangs in that post. As she campaigns around the country, the vice president has also lamented the collapse of a bipartisan border security deal in Congress that most Republican lawmakers rejected at Trump’s behest. 

Harris has worked to make immigration an issue that can help her win supporters, saying that Trump would rather play politics with the issue than seek solutions, while also promising more humane treatment of immigrants should she win the White House. 

In June, Biden announced rules that bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. Since then, arrests for illegal border crossings have fallen. 

Despite that, a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released this month found that Trump has an advantage over Harris on whom voters trust to better handle immigration. This issue was a problem for Biden, as well: Illegal immigration and crossings at the U.S. border with Mexico have been a challenge during much of his administration. The poll also found that Republicans are more likely to care about immigration.
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Campaigns seek to mobilize voters in swing state of Georgia 

Early voting for the U.S. presidential election in the state of Georgia begins October 15. Polls show a close contest there between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more from Atlanta, Georgia.
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Trump pledges sweeping tariffs, says they will keep jobs in US

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Donald Trump on Tuesday pledged to stop U.S. businesses from shipping jobs overseas and to take other countries’ jobs and factories by relying heavily on sweeping tariffs to boost auto manufacturing — despite warnings that domestic consumers would pay more and a lack of specifics about how his plans would work.

“I want German car companies to become American car companies. I want them to build their plants here,” Trump declared during a speech in Savannah, Georgia.

Trump added that, if elected, he’d put a 100% tariff on every car imported from Mexico and that the only way to avoid those charges would be for an automaker to build the cars in the U.S.

His ideas, if enacted, could cause a huge upheaval in the American auto industry. Many automakers now build smaller, lower-priced vehicles in Mexico — facilitated by a trade agreement Trump negotiated while president — or in other countries because their profit margins are slim. The lower labor costs help the companies make money on those vehicles.

German and other foreign automakers already have extensive manufacturing operations in the U.S., and many now build more vehicles here than they send. BMW, for instance, has an 8 million-square-foot campus in South Carolina that employs 11,000 people building more than 1,500 SUVs per day for the U.S. and 120 export markets. Mercedes and Volkswagen also have large factories here.

If German automakers were to increase production here, they likely would have to take it from factories in Germany, which then would run below their capacity and be less efficient, said Sam Abuelsamid, principal research analyst for Guidehouse Insights.

“It makes no sense,” he said.

Trump proposes ‘new American industrialism’ — without specifics

Trump has proposed using tariffs on imports and other measures to boost American industry — even as economists have cautioned that U.S. consumers would bear the costs of tariffs and other Trump proposals like staging the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.

The former president laid out a broad array of economic proposals during a speech in the key swing state of Georgia, promising to create a special ambassador to help lure foreign manufacturers to the U.S. and further entice them by offering access to federal land.

Additionally, he called for lowering the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%, but only for companies that produce in the U.S. Harris, the Democratic nominee, wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%. It had been 35% when Trump became president in 2017, and he later signed legislation lowering it.

“We’re putting America first,” Trump said. “This new American industrialism will create millions and millions of jobs.”

Trump also suggested wiping away some environmental regulations to boost energy production, saying America has “got the oil, it’s got the gas. We have everything. The only thing we don’t have is smart people leading our country.”

Tuesday’s series of economic proposals raised a lot of questions, but the former president hasn’t given specific answers on his ideas, which could substantially affect their impact and how much they cost. He has not specified, for example, whether his U.S.-focused corporate tax cuts would apply to companies that assemble their products domestically out of imports.

Trump also suggested he would use a newly created envoy, and his own personal efforts, to recruit foreign companies. But he had a spotty record in the White House of attracting foreign investment. In one infamous case, Trump promised a $10 billion investment by Taiwan-based electronics giant Foxconn in Wisconsin, creating potentially 13,000 new jobs, that the company never delivered.

His calls to offer federal land, meanwhile, might clash with Bureau of Land Management restrictions on foreign entities looking to lease lands. It also wasn’t clear whether companies from China would be excluded, given Trump’s longtime accusations that China is hurting American business.
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Will pro-Palestinian opposition hurt Harris in Michigan?

The Uncommitted National Movement that began as a protest against President Joe Biden’s policies on the war in Gaza last week announced they will not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate. Another pro-Palestinian group “Abandon Harris” says they’re working to ensure her defeat. Could these movements impact election results in battleground states? White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara brings this story from Michigan, the state with the highest percentage of Arab Americans.
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TikTok removes Russian media accounts for ‘covert influence operations’

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What is the Electoral College?

One of the more confusing parts of the U.S. electoral system is that presidents are not elected through direct popular vote but through a mechanism called the Electoral College. Here’s how it works.
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AI not yet a ‘revolutionary influence tool,’ US says

washington — Russia, Iran and China are not giving up on the use of artificial intelligence to sway American voters ahead of November’s presidential election even though U.S. intelligence agencies assess the use of AI has so far failed to revolutionize the election influence efforts.

The new appraisal released late Monday from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence comes just more than 40 days before U.S. voters head to the polls. It follows what officials describe as a “steady state” of influence operations by Moscow, Tehran and Beijing aimed at impacting the race between former Republican President Donald Trump and current Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as other statewide and local elections.

“Foreign actors are using AI to more quickly and convincingly tailor synthetic content,” said a U.S. intelligence official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity to discuss the latest findings.

“AI is an enabler,” the official added. “A malign influence accelerant, not yet a revolutionary influence tool.”

It is not the first time U.S. officials have expressed caution about how AI could impact the November election.

A top official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the U.S. agency charged with overseeing election security, told VOA earlier this month that to this point the malicious use of AI has not been able to live up to some of the hype.

“Generative AI is not going to fundamentally introduce new threats to this election cycle,” said CISA senior adviser Cait Conley. “What we’re seeing is consistent with what we expected to see.”

That does not mean, however, that U.S. adversaries are not trying.

The new U.S. intelligence assessment indicates Russia, Iran and China have used AI to generate text, images, audio and video and distribute them across all major social media platforms.

Russia, Iran and China have yet to respond to requests for comment.

All three have previously rejected U.S. allegations regarding election influence campaigns.

While U.S. intelligence officials would not say how many U.S. voters have been exposed to such malign AI products, there is reason to think that some of the efforts are, at least for the moment, falling short.

“The quality is not as believable as you might expect,” said the U.S. intelligence official.

One reason, the official said, is because Russia, Iran and China have struggled to overcome restrictions built into some of the more advanced AI tools while simultaneously encountering difficulties developing their own AI models.

There are also indications that all three U.S. adversaries have to this point failed to find ways to more effectively use AI to find and target receptive audiences.

“To do scaled AI operations is not cheap,” according to Clint Watts, a former FBI special agent and counterterror consultant who heads up the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC).

“Some of the infrastructure and the resources of it [AI], the models, the data it needs to be trained [on] – very challenging at the moment,” Watts told a cybersecurity summit in Washington earlier this month. “You can make more of everything misinformation, disinformation, but it doesn’t mean they’ll be very good.”

In some cases, U.S. adversaries see traditional tactics, which do not rely on AI, as equally effective.

For instance, U.S. intelligence officials on Monday said a video claiming that Vice President Harris injured a girl in a 2011 hit-and-run accident was staged by Russian influence actors, confirming an assessment last week by Microsoft.

The officials also said altered videos showing Harris speaking slowly, also the result of Russian influence actors, could have been done without relying on AI.

For now, experts and intelligence officials agree that when it comes to AI, Russia, Iran and China have settled on quantity over quality.

Microsoft has tracked hundreds of instances of AI use by Russia, Iran and China over the past 14 months. And while U.S. intelligence officials would not say how much AI-generated material has been disseminated, they agree Russian-linked actors, especially, have been leading the way.

“These items include AI-generated content of and about prominent U.S. figures … consistent with Russia’s broader efforts to boost the former president’s candidacy and denigrate the vice president and the Democratic Party,” the U.S. intelligence official said, calling Russia one of the most sophisticated actors in knowing how to target American voters.

Those efforts included an AI-boosted effort to spread disinformation with a series of fake web domains masquerading as legitimate U.S. news sites, interrupted earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Iran, which has sought to hurt the re-election bid by former President Trump, has also copied the Russian playbook, according to the new U.S. assessment, seeking to sow discord among U.S. voters.

Tehran has also been experimenting, using AI to help spread its influence campaign not just in English, but also in Spanish, especially when seeking to generate anger among voters over immigration.

“One of the benefits of generative AI models is to overcome various language barriers,” the U.S. intelligence official said.

“So Iran can use the tools to help do that,” the official added, calling immigration “obviously an issue where Iran perceives they could stoke discord.”

Beijing, in some ways, has opted for a more sophisticated use of AI, according to the U.S. assessment, using it to generate fake news anchors in addition to fake social media accounts.

But independent analysts have questioned the reach of China’s efforts under its ongoing operation known as “Spamouflage.”

A recent report by the social media analytics firm Graphika found that, with few exceptions, the Chinese accounts “failed to garner significant traction in authentic online communities discussing the election.”

U.S. intelligence officials have also said the majority of the Chinese efforts have been aimed not at Trump or Harris, but at state and local candidates perceived as hostile to Beijing.

U.S. intelligence officials on Monday refused to say how many other countries are using AI in an effort to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.

Earlier this month, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Washington was “seeing more actors in this space acting more aggressively in a more polarized environment and doing more with technologies, in particular AI.”
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Muslim Americans could flex ‘political muscles’ in November US elections

Muslims account for less than 2% of the U.S. population, but as VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, Muslim American influence in U.S. elections is growing, driven largely by concerns over the continued war between Israel and Hamas.
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Some US lawmakers urge cooling of heated presidential campaign rhetoric

U.S. lawmakers from both major political parties have called for cooling the nation’s heated political rhetoric six weeks before the November 5th presidential election. This follows a second apparent assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. And his claims of immigrants eating people’s pets that has an Ohio Haitan community on edge. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has the story.
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Republicans in swing states say they see scant signs of groups door-knocking for Trump

Lansing, Michigan — Republican activists in swing states say they have seen little sign of the teams tasked with knocking on doors and turning out infrequent voters on behalf of Donald Trump, raising concerns about the party’s presidential nominee relying on outside groups for an important part of his campaign operations.

Trump and the Republican National Committee he controls opted to share get-out-the-vote duties in key parts of the most competitive states this year with groups such as America PAC, the organization supported by billionaire Elon Musk.

It is difficult to demonstrate that something is not happening. But with fewer than 50 days until the Nov. 5 election, dozens of Republican officials, activists and operatives in Michigan, North Carolina and other battleground states say they have rarely or never witnessed the group’s canvassers. In Arizona and Nevada, the Musk-backed political action committee replaced its door-knocking company just this past week.

“I haven’t seen anybody,” said Nate Wilkowski, field director for the Republican Party in vote-rich Oakland County, Michigan, which includes crucial Detroit suburbs. He was speaking specifically of America PAC. “Nobody’s given me a heads-up that they’re around in Oakland County areas.”

Trump has relied on the loyalty of his fervent base, in an election expected to pivot on turnout. The spotty evidence, however, of what was portrayed as a sophisticated operation has some party activists questioning the operation’s value. Trump’s campaign views the race with Vice President Kamala Harris as a toss-up among likely voters but believes it has the edge among people who stayed away in 2016 and 2020, making it even more essential to reach them.

The work is particularly important in Michigan, where Trump lost by fewer than 160,000 votes in 2020, and where the Republican Party began the year mired in debt and fighting an ugly contest over the rightful state party leader.

Michigan’s Republican chairman, Pete Hoekstra, said he was told that America PAC canvassers had arrived in late August and were at work. A spokesperson for the PAC said canvassers were in Michigan, as well as Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — the seven most competitive states. The spokesperson declined to say how many canvassers there were across the states.

Meghan Reckling, a Republican canvassing firm owner in Michigan, said she spotted two America PAC canvassers Tuesday in Oakland County. Identifiable in blue polo shirts emblazoned with “America,” they were working an area that Reckling’s own data showed to be one with low-propensity voters, she said.

“They had, you could tell, a very pleasant exchange with the lady who answered the door, and probably talked to her for five minutes,” Reckling said. “From what I observed, they were obviously engaging in direct conversations.”

But in interviews with more than two dozen activists and party officials across the seven battleground states, such reports were rare.

“I don’t know what the PACs are doing,” said Mark Forton, the Republican chair in Macomb County, Michigan, a populous, suburban area northeast of Detroit. “I don’t know if they are going door to door.”

Trump aides say the campaign has an estimated 30,000 volunteer captains who are identifying less likely voters at the local level, including through neighborhood canvassing.

Campaign political director James Blair also estimates that close to 2,500 paid canvassers, with America PAC making up a significant chunk, are working in the seven states. The PAC has paid canvassing firms more than $14 million since mid-August for work on the presidential campaign, according to Federal Election Commission spending reports filed by the group.

Blair dismissed the statement that the campaign was ceding work to outside groups. Instead, he said, the campaign was making use of “the resources within those groups to bolster the frequency of contacts and the total coverage within the universe of where we would want them.”

“We very much are focused on low-propensity voters, because it’s what makes strategically the most sense in terms of how the president is going to win these states, and these groups’ efforts have helped reach them,” Blair said.

America PAC is run by former top aides to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ failed presidential campaign. Trump’s team also is sharing the responsibility of reaching less-frequent voters with groups that include Turning Point USA, led by conservative millennial personality Charlie Kirk, and the Faith and Freedom Coalition, headed by Christian conservative figure Ralph Reed.

Part of the reason for the campaign’s move was the result of an FEC ruling this year that a candidate’s campaign and outside groups could coordinate their canvassing efforts with super PACs, and specifically share voter lists and data that they collect door to door. It means campaigns could share much of their labor- and cost-heavy ground efforts with groups that can take unlimited donations.

Harris’ outreach on the ground in the seven states is being led by campaign-paid staff, a number the campaign puts at nearly 2,200 in more than 328 offices. Campaign aides said groups affiliated with labor organizations were canvassing independent of the campaign.

The vast majority of what outside groups that support Harris are doing is advertising. Based on ad reservations for Harris and the leading super PAC supporting her, they are on track to spend nearly $175 million more than Trump’s campaign and the leading super PACs supporting him by Election Day. Harris’ campaign has outspent Trump’s on advertising by 2-to-1 since she entered the race on July 23, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact.

Over the past week, there were complications for America PAC, the most high-profile of the groups helping Trump in 2024.

America PAC fired Nevada-based canvassing company September Group, according to two people familiar with the matter. America PAC had paid the company almost $2.7 million a month ago, according to FEC reports. The people familiar with September Group’s dismissal spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private business decisions.

A spokesman for America PAC declined to confirm the move.

Trump is not the first candidate to delegate some typical campaign-managed duties to outside groups. But the arrangement has not gone smoothly for some of the others who have tried it.

Last year, DeSantis entrusted much of the political outreach for his Republican presidential campaign to a super PAC called Never Back Down, with conflict between its board and top campaign personnel late in the lead-up to the Iowa caucuses. Despite starting the campaign with roughly $100 million, DeSantis dropped out after losing the first contest in Iowa.

In his unsuccessful quest for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush attempted something very similar, ceding much of the political infrastructure work to a super PAC called Right to Rise, which raised more than $114 million in 2015.
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Trump campaigns in North Carolina without state’s top Republican candidate

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump returned to North Carolina on Saturday, stumping in the southern battleground state that both Democrats and Republicans are treating as increasingly critical to victory in November.

But the former president campaigned in Wilmington, along the state’s southern coast, without Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, the Republican gubernatorial nominee and one of the former president’s top surrogates in the state, following a CNN report about his alleged posts on a pornography website’s message board.

Robinson has denied writing the posts, which include lewd and racist comments, saying Thursday that he wouldn’t be forced out of the race by “salacious tabloid lies.”

Trump’s campaign has appeared to distance itself from Robinson in the wake of the CNN reporting, which the AP has not independently verified, saying in a statement to the AP that Trump “is focused on winning the White House and saving this country” and calling North Carolina “a vital part of that plan,” without mentioning Robinson.

While Robinson won his Republican gubernatorial primary in March, he’s been trailing in several recent polls to Democratic nominee Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general. State Republican officials have stood by Robinson, whose decision to keep campaigning could threaten Republican prospects in other key races, including Trump’s efforts in a battleground state he previously won twice.

Democrats have seized on the opportunity to highlight Trump’s ties to Robinson, with billboards showing the two together, as well as a new ad from Vice President Kamala Harris ‘ campaign highlighting the Republican candidates’ ties as well as Robinson’s support for a statewide abortion ban without exceptions. According to Harris’ campaign, it’s their first ad effort related to tying Trump to a down-ballot race.

Outdoor rally

Trump’s first outdoor rally since the second apparent attempt to assassinate him was at a Wilmington airport, where a large American flag hung from a crane, with hundreds of chairs and standing room for many more spectators. Bulletproof glass surrounded the area on stage, a new precaution for outdoor venues the Secret Service implemented after a bullet grazed Trump’s ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Charlie Kimball, a 46-year-old former construction worker from Burgaw, who said he is on disability, dismissed the allegations against Robinson as “fake news.”

“That’s his personal life. Who cares?” Kimball said. “It’s all hearsay. … It’s not true. It’s all speculation. Where’s the proof?”

A Republican has carried North Carolina in every general election since 1976 save one, when Barack Obama won the state in 2008. Trump won there in both his previous campaigns but by less than 1.5 percentage points over Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, the closest margin of any state that Trump won. That’s part of why Democrats see the state as winnable this fall.

With neither Senate seat up for grabs, the gubernatorial contest has been North Carolina’s marquee down-ballot race this year. Robinson has become a natural top surrogate for Trump in the state and a frequent presence at campaign events there, appearing with the nominee as recently as last month at an event. Trump has long praised Robinson, who is Black, referring to him as “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

Endorsing Robinson ahead of the Republican gubernatorial primary, Trump continued: “I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.”

State up for grabs

While more visits have been made by presidential contenders to the Rust Belt battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, both Harris and Trump have made multiple trips to North Carolina, highlighting the state’s importance. Following Biden’s departure from the race in July, Trump held his first large-scale rally there, turning his full focus toward Harris.

Wilmington is home to New Hanover County, which Biden won in 2020. But his margin over Trump in the county was among his slimmest in the state.

Julia Novotny, 55, of Wilmington, said she’s come around to supporting Trump after initial reservations because of allegations that he’s been sexually abusive to women, which he denies.

“He’s classy, he’s a gentleman, he looks good in a suit, and he has strong values,” Novotny said. “Everybody makes mistakes, and whether he did or didn’t, I don’t know, but you know what? Leave him alone. He’s a good man. He wants to change this country. Our country is in the dirt, and the only man who pulls us out is Donald Trump.”
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Harris steps up outreach to Mormon voters in battleground Arizona 

PHOENIX — Vice President Kamala Harris is stepping up her efforts to win over voters who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, enlisting prominent members of the faith to make the case in pivotal Arizona that Donald Trump does not align with the church’s values.

Her state campaign announced on Thursday an advisory committee to formalize the outreach to current and former members of the church, widely known as the Mormon church.

With nearly 450,000 church members in Arizona, about 6% of the state’s population, Latter-day Saints and former church members could prove critical in what will likely be an extremely close race.

Latter-day Saints have traditionally voted Republican and are likely to remain part of the GOP coalition. Clustered in solidly Republican states, they have long been a major force in GOP primaries and local politics across the West, but they have not held much sway in national elections. In 2020, about seven in 10 Mormon voters nationally supported Trump, according to AP VoteCast, while about one-quarter backed Democrat Joe Biden.

Core to Harris’ strategy is preventing Trump from running up big margins with demographic groups that favor him. While she is unlikely to win anything close to a majority of Latter-day Saints, picking up a small share of their votes would make a big difference in a state with a recent history of tight elections. Biden won by just under 10,500 votes in 2020. Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes won by just 280 in 2022.

Constitution and faith

Latter-day Saints supporting Harris in Arizona make a faith-based appeal for backing the Democratic ticket despite any reservations, pointing to church teaching that the U.S. Constitution is divinely inspired.

“The Constitution is a tenet of our faith, and we certainly shouldn’t be voting for people who have shown a disdain for it,” said Joel John, a former Republican state lawmaker who will serve as a co-chair of the committee. “And we certainly shouldn’t be supporting someone who tried to overthrow it on January 6.”

John said that explains how his faith guides his own support for Harris but emphasized he’s not speaking on behalf of the church and doesn’t judge Latter-day Saints who vote differently.

The Salt Lake City-based church does not endorse candidates or political parties, but John said Latter-day Saints are encouraged to elect politicians who are “good, honest and wise.” He said those are moral traits that Trump lacks and that transcend any policy differences they might have with Harris, such as her economic plans or position on gun rights.

Halee Dobbins, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said Democrats have “allowed progressive policies to erode traditional values.”

“President Trump has consistently stood with believers by protecting religious institutions, appointing constitutionalist Justices, and defending Christian values nationally and abroad,” Dobbins said in a statement. “He has made it a priority to protect religious communities, not fight against them.”

Trump behavior

While many conservative-leaning religious voters warmed to him long ago, Trump has struggled to win over Latter-day Saints. For many members of the church, Trump’s penchant for foul language and demeaning rhetoric toward women and people of color clashes with the church’s values of humility, morality and compassion.

It has not helped that Trump has feuded with U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, among the best known members of the church, and former U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.

In Arizona, Latter-day Saints make up an outsize share of the population in metro Phoenix’s East Valley, a suburban area where ticket-splitting voters have rejected Trump-backed Republicans, helping to push a reliable GOP state into a battleground. Mesa, Arizona’s third-largest city with more than 500,000 people, traces its modern history to a settlement founded by pioneers from the faith in the 1800s.

Church members also settled in swaths of rural Arizona and their descendants remain deeply rooted there.

Voting on morals

Democratic efforts to woo Latter-day Saints are not new. Hillary Clinton in 2016 drew parallels between Trump’s pledge to stop Muslim immigration and the history of religious persecution against Latter-day Saints. Biden went further four years later, investing in organizing church members as Harris is trying to do now.

The “social expectation” for members of the faith to align with conservatives is strong, but Harris has an opening in particular to win over younger Latter-day Saints, who, like the country at large, are more diverse, said Brittany Romanello, an anthropologist, Mellon postdoctoral fellow and faculty associate at Arizona State University. Her research includes culture and identity of Latter-day Saints.

“Mormons have been shown to have this attitude that they aren’t just voting based on party affiliation only,” said Romanello, who was raised in the church but is no longer practicing. “They’re voting based on morals.”
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