US presidential election: AUKUS subs plan ‘could be torn up’ if Trump wins
A top adviser has warned there could be dire consequences for Australia’s plans to acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines if Donald Trump wins the US election.
Kamala Harris is being held to “a higher standard” than Donald Trump, Michelle Obama said in her first appearance on the campaign trail as she unleashed on the Republican while warning the race was “too close for our liking”.
The Vice President and the former president descended on Michigan for the first day of early voting in the critical battleground state, with Mr Trump doubling down on his criticisms of Detroit while he campaigned in the city’s suburbs.
The night before, he was almost three hours late to a rally in the state, having spent three hours speaking to America’s biggest podcaster Joe Rogan.
During the interview, he maintained he won the 2020 election that he lost to Joe Biden, attacked his opponents as “the enemy within” and said they were a “bigger problem” than North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, and boasted that Google chief Sundar Pichai called him to say his campaign stunt at McDonald’s was “one of the biggest things we’ve ever had”.
It came as John Bolton, former US ambassador to the United Nations, said the AUKUS subs plan could be torn up if Mr Trump wins the US election.
HATRED AND DIVISION: MICHELLE OBAMA RIPS INTO TRUMP
Former president Barack Obama’s wife – one of the most popular Democratic surrogates – said voters were expecting “nothing at all” from Mr Trump while holding Ms Harris to “a higher standard”.
“I hope that you will forgive me if I’m a little angry that we are indifferent to his erratic behaviour, his obvious mental decline, his history as a convicted felon, a known slumlord, a predator found liable for sexual abuse,” Mrs Obama said.
“All of this, while we pick apart Kamala’s answers from interviews that he doesn’t even have the courage to do.”
“If we want to help this country finally turn the page on the politics of hatred and division, we can’t just sit around and complain. We’ve got to do something.”
The Vice President similarly acknowledged the race – which the polls show is locked in a statistical tie – was close but declared: “We are going to win.”
In Detroit’s suburbs, Mr Trump said the city “makes us a developing nation”.
“We’re going to make Detroit great again, finally, after 45 years,” the former president said.
“It needs help … How the hell can you be positive?”
He also criticised Ms Harris’s rally the night before in Texas, saying that “the place went crazy” because pop icon Beyoncé spoke but did not sing,
“They thought she was going to perform. I would have no interest in that,” Mr Trump said.
“They have to use people to get people to come.”
On Sunday (local time), Mr Trump was due to hold a blockbuster rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, while Ms Harris travelled to Philadelphia.
She had also been in talks to appear on Mr Rogan’s podcast – which is wildly popular with young male voters who will play a decisive role in next week’s election – but did not lock it in.
Mr Trump said in his interview: “Could you imagine Kamala doing this show? I hope she does because it would be a mess. She’d be laying on the floor comatose.”
Mr Biden also made a rare appearance on the campaign trail on Saturday (local time), telling Democratic supporters in Pennsylvania that his predecessor was “a loser”.
“He’s a loser as a candidate, and more importantly, in my view, I’m just gonna say straight up: He’s a loser as a man,” the President said.
AUKUS ‘COULD BE TORN UP’ IF TRUMP WINS
The AUKUS subs plan could be torn up if Donald Trump is re-elected next week, according to a former top Republican party security adviser.
John Bolton, former US ambassador to the United Nations, said AUKUS would undergo a major review under an incoming Trump administration.
“I think it could be in jeopardy,” he told 7NEWS.
“All Trump looks at is the balance sheet, and if he sees more US expenditure than those of other parties to the agreement, then I think there will be trouble.”
Ambassador Bolton is now encouraging Australia to mount arguments in favour of the alliance if Mr Trump wins the election.
“You’ve got to explain that these Australian submarines can patrol the Indian Ocean and the waters of the Pacific around Australia (and) southeast Asia.”
“This is an incredible addition to … American national security. That’s what he (Trump) needs to understand,” Ambassador Bolton said.
BEYONCE CAMPAIGNS FOR HARRIS
It comes as pop icon Beyoncé made a long-awaited appearance on the campaign trail to call on Americans to “sing a new song” and elect Harris in next week’s US election.
The Vice President diverted from the battleground states for a rally in front of 30,000 people in Beyoncé’s home of Texas, highlighting the state’s abortion ban as she ramped up her bid to restore reproductive rights that she blamed Donald Trump for stripping away.
“We are fighting for freedom,” Ms Harris said.
“Though we are in Texas tonight, for anyone watching from another state … please know: No one is protected if there is a Trump national abortion ban.”
Beyoncé – who was joined by her mother Tina Knowles and fellow former Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland, as well as actor Jessica Alba and singer Willie Nelson – said the US was “at the precipice of an incredible shift, the brink of history”.
“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician, I’m here as a mother – a mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in,” she said.
“It’s time for America to sing a new song.”
.@Beyonce’s full remarks in support of Vice President Harris pic.twitter.com/CPCaFKkO9o
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 26, 2024
The former president also diverted his campaign to Texas, where he blasted Ms Harris for deciding to “rub shoulders with woke celebrities” rather than meet “victims of migrant crime”.
Mr Trump was joined at a rally in Austin by Alexis Nungaray, whose 12-year-old daughter Jocelyn was killed by two illegal immigrants. She blamed the Biden-Harris administration for her death and criticised the Vice President for not offering a “sincere apology”.
A day earlier, Mr Trump called the US the “garbage can for the world” because of how the country had been inundated by illegal immigrants.
“Donald Trump is constantly demeaning and belittling who the American people are. America deserves better,” Ms Harris responded.
While she sought to shore up her advantage with female voters, Mr Trump doubled down on his lead among male voters by recording a three-hour podcast with Joe Rogan, who boasts tens of millions of listeners who are predominantly young men.
The stark gender divide put the candidates in a dead heat with a week and a half left in the race, with the latest New York Times poll finding they were tied on 48 per cent.
Democratic pollster Mark Penn cautioned Mr Trump had “real movement and momentum going into the close”, having wiped away the Vice President’s narrow advantage.
In other developments, Mr Trump issued an extraordinary new threat to special counsel Jack Smith, who is pressing criminal charges against the former president over his effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat and his mishandling of classified files.
After promising to fire Mr Smith “in two seconds”, Mr Trump ramped up his rhetoric by declaring he should be “thrown out of the country”.
He also unleashed a fiery social media post amplifying his claims of election fraud, saying: “WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, which will include long term prison sentences.”
In Pennsylvania, the most important battleground state up for grabs, election officials said they were probing an effort to register up to 2500 fraudulent voters, although they did not reveal who was to blame and said the effort did not appear tied to either party.
Amid rising foreign interference efforts, intelligence agencies confirmed Chinese government-linked hackers had targeted the phones of Mr Trump and his running mate JD Vance, as well as senior Biden administration officials.
A storm also erupted over The Washington Post’s refusal to endorse a candidate for the first time in decades, a decision the paper’s reporters blamed on its owner Jeff Bezo, the Amazon founder whose business interests have previously been threatened by Mr Trump.
A columnist resigned in protest and more than 1600 subscribers cancelled their accounts.
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