We spoke to Marc Lotter from the America First Policy Institute. He was director of communications for Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign and served as Special Assistant to President Trump during his first year in office.

Matt Frei: First of all, we saw former President Trump at the weekend loving the fact, hailing the fact that Joe Biden was the candidate running against him. So when Joe Biden finally stepped to one side, was that a bad day for the Trump campaign?

Marc Lotter: No, absolutely not. It doesn’t matter whose name is on the top of the ticket. Their policies suck and the American people don’t like them. There’s two thirds of the American people who think our country’s headed on the wrong track. And it’s Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, who own the inflation crisis, own the high gas prices, own the border crisis. And we’re the leaders of the free world when Israel was attacked and when Russia invaded Ukraine. The world is in chaos because of them. Doesn’t matter who they put at the top of the ticket, they can’t run from their own record.

Matt Frei: But you had that very powerful image last week during the convention of the split screen of Donald Trump with his fist in the air saying, ‘fight, fight, fight’ after the assassination attempt. And on the other side, you had Joe Biden looking very frail, very doddery and very old. Trump is now the old man in this race, isn’t he?

Marc Lotter: He’s still the fighter. He’s still the guy who got up after the assassin tried to take him out. He’s still the one who put his fist in the air and said, ‘fight, fight, fight’. Meanwhile, you have Kamala Harris, she’s the one who’s raising bail money for the rioters of 2020 so they could get let out of jail. One of them is now charged later with murder. She’s the one who’s soft on crime, who’s weak in every policy area, and no amount of lipstick can make this look any different than what it is. It’s bad.

Matt Frei: But she was also very tough on crime when she was a prosecutor and the attorney general of California. She was known for that, in fact, in many ways hated for that, by many people in that state. And when it comes to raising funds, she’s just raised $120 million USD in 48 hours. That’s a lot more than Donald Trump has raised in the last month.

Marc Lotter: She’s going to need every dime of it, because she’s going to try to introduce herself and actually change her life story to the American people. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign, I’m sure they’ll probably dump $100 million USD out there to make sure people know the real Kamala Harris. The Kamala Harris who’s never been to Europe until she was elected vice president, and explained the Ukraine situation as ‘Ukraine is a small country next to Russia, which is a big one’. That’s your next commander in chief if the Democrats have their way. That’s not very good.

Matt Frei: But if you ask the Ukrainians, they’re also pretty worried about Donald Trump’s friendship with Vladimir Putin. But that’s another point. I just wonder also, whether the attack line from Kamala Harris, that she’s the prosecutor going after the convicted felon Donald Trump, is something that’s going to hurt the Trump campaign?

Marc Lotter: No, those charges are going to get thrown out because they’re such a joke. Most people know they’re a joke. And even after the verdict from that sham trial, Donald Trump set fundraising records right after that, because the American people saw right through this paperwork trial that they tried to manufacture. Then once again, it backfired on them.

Matt Frei: What about these dog whistle hints of misogyny and racism, calling her a diversity hire and then Donald Trump, I read, has come up with a new one on his social media platform. ‘She’s as dumb as a rock’. This is childish nonsense, isn’t it? Or offensive, at worst.

Marc Lotter: Look, I’m not going to play in name calling. When you’re dealing with a party and a radical, out of control, politic that has literally compared Donald Trump to the worst leader in the history of our world, in Adolf Hitler. They have called us every name in the book…

Matt Frei: As did JD Vance. JD Vance compared him to Adolf Hitler too.

Marc Lotter: And guess what? JD Vance actually did his homework. Didn’t believe the narrative and the lies that were being spread about him, and he now is his running mate. No better candidate to be able to go to someone who hasn’t decided and say ‘I was the same way you were. But when I looked at the records of these two administrations, when I looked at their plans for the future, I got on board with the America First movement. Come on in. The water’s fine. You can do it, too’.