Donald Trump turns his attention to 'radical left lunatic' Kamala Harris in first rally since Biden dropped out

Donald Trump turned his attention to 'radical left lunatic' Kamala Harris and told the crowd the time for being 'nice' was over in his first rally since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

'They say something happened to me when I got shot. I became nice… If you don't mind, I'm not going to be nice. Is that okay?' the former president told the audience in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Republican nominee called Harris is the 'most incompetent, far-left' vice president in history and said he had 'defeated' Biden when he announced he was ending his 2024 bid on Sunday.

He added that she is an 'ultra liberal' who is 'hated' by her staff and makes Bernie Sanders 'look like a moderate'.

Trump said, as 'Border Czar', Harris let in millions of migrants across and said she would 'destroy this country so fast'.

A vote for her, he said, would mean a 'ban on red meat' and 'four more years of incompetence, weakness and failure'. 

Using his infamous line from The Apprentice, he said: 'Kamala, you're fired!'

The crowd cheered and chanted 'USA, USA' at the event forced indoors because of the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.  

North Carolina voted narrowly for Trump in the past two elections.

However, Democrats see it as a potential pickup and the state's term-limited governor, Roy Cooper, is among the possible running mates being considered by Harris. 

His campaign and allies have pivoted rapidly to attacks on the vice president, tying her to the administration's struggles to tame inflation and a crisis at the border.

A super PAC launched TV ads on Monday, accusing Harris of covering up Biden's obvious mental decline. 

'But Kamala knew Joe couldn't do the job, so she did it,' says the narrator of the ad, funded by MAGA Inc.

'Look what she got done, a border invasion, runaway inflation, the American Dream dead. They created this mess. They ... no, Kamala owns this failed record.'

And on Tuesday, Trump said the switch in candidates held no fear for him. He said her campaign for president imploded in 2020.

'So if she campaigns that way now and this is only going to be tougher, although she does have a lot of support from the fake news. There's no question about that,' he told reporters on a briefing call. 

'But if she campaigns the way she campaigned then, you know, I suspect she won't be too tough.'

The change in candidate has provided a fillip to Democrats too.

The Harris campaign on Wednesday said it has raised $126 million since Sunday, with 64% of donors making their first contribution of the 2024 campaign. 

Harris held her first rally since becoming the likely nominee a day earlier in Milwaukee, where she warned that Trump would take the nation 'backward.'

'Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, or a country of chaos, fear and hate?' she asked.