Donald Trump holds indoor rally amid Secret Service move

Donald Trump has blasted Kamala Harris and Joe Biden for being “weak and ineffective” in a fiery speech at a huge rally.

Donald Trump blasted Kamala Harris and Joe Biden for being “weak and ineffective”, blaming them for the horrific Hezbollah attack that killed at least 12 children, in a fiery speech at an indoor rally.

Mr Trump took to the stage at a joint rally with running mate JD Vance in St Cloud, Minnesota, a state that has long favoured Democrats but that the former president thinks could be now within his reach in his race to the White House.

He expressed sympathies for Israelafter the deadly rocket attack on a soccer pitch by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump arrives to speak during a rally at Herb Brooks National Hockey Centre in St Cloud, Minnesota. Picture: AFP

“I want to condemn the evil attack on Israel that took place today, a missile launched by Hezbollah killed at least a dozen children, young children,” he told the crowd at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Centre

“They were playing on a soccer field in the Golan Heights.

“Today’s attack on Israel cannot be forgotten and will go down as another moment in history created by a weak and ineffective United States President and Vice President.”

To cheers from the crowd, Mr Trump again blasted Ms Harris as a “radical left lunatic” and mocked Mr Biden, saying he “can’t string two words together” and had “destroyed the nation”.

Mr Trump upped the ante in his attacks on Ms Harris, describing her as “evil” over what he said was her failure to address the US border crisis.

Donald Trump on stage in St Cloud, Minnesota. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

At times his speech veered from scathing to jokey as he referenced his wife Melania, who has rarely been seen with him on the campaign trail, saying the former first lady didn’t like the way his hair looked.

He also referred to his viral video with American golfer Bryson DeChambeau as he again made fun of Mr Biden’s golf game.

It came after Mr Trump said he would return to holding outdoor rallies with additional Secret Service protection, two weeks after he was injured in an assassination attempt at an open-air campaign event.

“I will continue to do outdoor rallies, and the Secret Service has agreed to substantially step up their operation. They are very capable of doing so,” Mr Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

“No one can ever be allowed to stop or impede free speech or gathering,” he added.

The Secret Service has reportedly encouraged Mr Trump’s campaign to stop scheduling outdoor campaign events following his assassination attempt, opting instead for large indoor arenas.

Trump fans at the rally in St Cloud, Minnesota. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

Mr Trump was wounded when 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at him during an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, killing one person and injuring two others.

The FBI confirmed that Mr Trump was hit by a bullet, or a fragment of one, putting to rest questions over the nature of the injury to his right ear.

Investigators are still working to establish a motive for the attack, which marked another stunning chapter in the US election race and sparked heavy criticism of the Secret Service.

‘WE ARE THE UNDERDOGS’: HARRIS

US Vice President Kamala Harris has acknowledged the uphill climb to defeating Mr Trump in November, but said her freshly-minted presidential campaign would prevail over the “wild lies” of her Republican rival.

As Mr Trump prepared to address a bitcoin conference in Tennessee, Ms Harris was speaking at a fundraising event in Massachusetts with celebrity guests including singer-songwriter James Taylor and cellist Yoyo Ma.

“We are the underdogs in this race, but this is a people-powered campaign,” she told the crowd at the event, which her campaign said would net $1.4 million.

“You may have noticed, Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record. And some of what he and his running mate are saying, well, it’s just plain weird,” she said, the latest quip adopted by Democrats in describing the Republicans’ attacks.

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign fundraising event at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Picture: AFP

The latest among them included Mr Trump’s remarks to a religious convention where he accused Ms Harris of being an anti-Semite who plans to allow the murder of newborn babies.

“She doesn’t like Jewish people. She doesn’t like Israel. That’s the way it is,” he said of the vice president, whose husband is Jewish.

In perhaps his most outrageous statement of the night, he claimed Ms Harris wanted to enshrine in federal law the right to “rip the baby out of the womb in the eighth, ninth month and even after birth— execute the baby after birth.”

Mr Trump, who at age 78 is now the oldest major-party nominee in history, is scrambling to reorient an election against someone two decades his junior, having expected to face an 81-year-old incumbent Joe Biden beset by concerns over infirmity.

Seeking to become the first female president in US history, Ms Harris is tasked with rapidly assembling a campaign against an opponent who has been in near permanent re-election mode since he became president in 2016.

Her late-starting White House bid has enjoyed early momentum. Polls that had shown Mr Biden steadily slipping against Mr Trump now show Ms Harris in a race too close to call.

She’s garnered support from Democratic heavyweights, including Mr Biden himself and most recently Barack and Michelle Obama.