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Harris gets on Trump's nerves so much that she attacks her Republican colleagues

Vice President Harris, what have you done to this already unstable man? The cheese somehow slipped even further off his cracker.

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Folks, I think Vice President Kamala Harris has broken Donald Trump.

I mean, it's fair to say he was already broken – in every way, to be exact – but since Harris was named the Democratic presidential nominee on July 21, the Republicans' favorite felon and presidential candidate has been disintegrating before our eyes.

Following his blistering moment of racism at the National Association of Black Journalists convention last week, where he bizarrely claimed that Harris had only recently “turned black by accident,” Trump held a rally in Atlanta on Saturday that was one big rant and rave fest and arguably the worst display of Trump’s snarling id we’ve seen in a long time.

Kamala Harris has already turned Donald Trump into a trembling heap of hate and insults

He called his opponent – ​​a sitting Vice President of the United States, a veteran prosecutor and former US Senator – “crazy Kamala”, a “lunatic” and a “radical left-wing monster”.

He incorrectly said, “She happens to be a low IQ person,” and then added without a hint of self-awareness, “We don't need a low IQ.”

Then he stammered this gem: “The two words are 'Merry Christmas.' She doesn't want anyone to say 'Merry Christmas.'”

At a 2017 press conference after then-President Trump announced he would end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) for children brought here illegally, then-Senator Harris said, “And if we all sing happy songs and sing Merry Christmas and wish each other Merry Christmas, those children are not going to have a Merry Christmas. How dare we say Merry Christmas. How dare we? They are not going to have a Merry Christmas.”

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Trump got so far off topic at his rally in Atlanta that he began attacking Republicans

And then he directed his drunken uncle-inspired rhetoric at Georgia's popular – and Republican! – Governor Brian Kemp, whom Trump hates for refusing to help him overturn the state's 2020 election results.

“Atlanta is like a battlefield and your governor should get off his butt and do something about it,” Trump boomed.

Will Trump and Harris debate? Trump's supporters want him to debate Kamala Harris. They told me why.

He attacked Kemp's wife, saying she had once thanked him for his support of her husband but had now turned against Trump.

“Now two weeks ago she said I'm not going to support him because he doesn't deserve my support,” the former president said. “I don't deserve her support? I have nothing to do with her.”

Then Trump again began to denigrate Kemp, who had clearly defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams two years after Joe Biden's victory in Georgia: “He's a bad guy, he's a disloyal guy and he's a very average governor. Little Brian, little Brian Kemp.”

It is clear that Harris is in Trump's head

Vice President Harris, what have you done to this already unstable man? The cheese somehow slipped even further off his cracker.

Trump is so shaken that he withdrew from a presidential debate scheduled for September 10 on ABC News and instead called for a debate on September 4 in the safety of his network Fox News with a “full audience in the arena.”

This is the equivalent of a presidential candidate throwing a tantrum before taking his ball and going home.

Trump and his election campaign have completely lost the appearance of inevitability

In the summer weeks before Harris' inauguration, after President Biden's disastrous performance in the presidential debate, Trump and his campaign were at the peak of their winning streak, and the candidate himself was, by his standards, normal. He was almost calm.

Then came the gruesome assassination attempt on Trump, which he thankfully survived, and the promises that he was a changed man, committed to unity. Republicans used this idea all the way up to the Republican National Convention, conveying a sense of inevitability. Trump even nominated hardcore MAGA butt-kisser JD Vance as his vice presidential candidate, ignoring advice to choose someone who could broaden the appeal of the campaign.

Then Biden got out and endorsed Harris. And people started to realize that Vance was a nutcase. Since then, the Republican wagon has been rocking, and Trump has become a somehow worse version of the Trump that voters sent away in 2020. He's panicking and floundering. He's falling faster than ever into the racism that has always underpinned his worldview.

The man was Kamala-ized.

Biden's departure put Trump in the spotlight – and it wasn't pretty

Harris has captured the enthusiasm of Democratic voters, as evidenced by her strong poll numbers and an impressive increase in her fundraising. By stepping down, Biden ended the national hyperfocus on his age and allowed voters to refocus on Trump.

Trump is funny: The Democrats have decided to publicly call Donald Trump “weird,” and it’s time

What voters saw that grabbed their attention again – what they saw at the rally in Atlanta and in his muddled interviews – is a man who allowed an opponent to change his mind and short-circuit his brain.

Is it because Harris is polling so much better than Biden? Is it because Trump feels intimidated by her? Is it because of her race and ethnicity? Is it because of her gender?

Who knows?

There is still a lot of time until the election, but Trump is afraid

Trump and his campaign still have enough time to get back on track, and Harris can make missteps and tip the course back toward the Republicans.

But it's clear that Trump is rattled, and that his usual tricks of throwing insults and name-calling aren't working. In fact, the smiling calm of the Harris campaign makes Trump's cruelty seem worse than ever. That's why the label “weird” sticks with him. For many, the whole thing is getting a little tiresome.

And that only makes Trump angrier and worse.

We still have a long way to go until November, folks. But as we stand here and now, Trump looks like he's broken. Broken and scared.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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