CNN
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Donald Trump is attempting to undermine Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’s reputation as a force for change and destroy her personal credibility as a potential president as their still-fresh competitors enter the final nine weeks before Election Day.

In recent days, the ex-president has launched a broad attack, drawing on the insulting policies that brought him to power in 2016. Meanwhile, his advisers are pleading with him to focus on voters’ biggest concerns, including high prices and immigration.

He has seized on foreign tragedies to accuse the vice president of responsibility for the deaths of American troops in Afghanistan and alleged complicity in the murder of hostages in Gaza. He and his running mate, J.D. Vance, have suggested that her mixed race — a heritage shared by millions of Americans — is evidence of a sinister “chameleon” nature that also explains policy changes on energy and immigration. In an ugly moment, he has amplified a sexually suggestive smear campaign against her on social media. And his dark campaign ads have claimed that she will slash Social Security benefits by welcoming millions of undocumented migrants into the country.

And in a repeat of past GOP campaigns that painted Democratic nominees as extreme liberals, Trump and his supporters are attempting to paint Harris as a communist and a “Bolshevik.” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem criticized Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, as a “security risk” because he once taught in China. And Trump has also begun to imply that the upcoming election might not be “free and fair,” saying in an interview that aired Sunday that it was ridiculous to charge him with “interference” in the 2020 election. Those and other recent comments raised the specter of a new national nightmare if he loses in November and refuses to accept defeat.

Trump’s desperation to gain traction has also seen him implement his own policy changes on reproductive rights as he tries to close a huge gender gap in polls. But his credibility may already be in tatters after he built the conservative majority on the Supreme Court that struck down the nation’s constitutional right to abortion. Vance also appears to have a knack for alienating female voters — as when he compared Harris to a nervous Miss Teen USA candidate.

Trump is not only true to his undisciplined self. He is illustrating his struggle to respond to Harris’s transformation of the race. Increasingly brazen attempts to puncture Harris’s bubble of hope also betray frustration in the Trump camp that she has managed to differentiate herself from her boss and present a fresher option than her 78-year-old GOP rival. And Trump is showing that there is almost nothing he won’t do to win.

Trump’s invective has been some of the harshest political rhetoric in years, even by his own standards, and that means the next two months are likely to be brutal.

The question is whether this barrage of negative attacks will only succeed in stoking the feelings of existential anger that Trump uses to rally his base, or whether it will begin to tarnish Harris on the fringes of the swing states.

It might make sense for Trump to give Harris everything he can think of. In two presidential elections, the ex-president has never topped 49 percent of the vote in the so-called blue-wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin or in the national count. So his chances in November may depend more on destroying the current feel-good factor surrounding Harris and depressing her prospects among small pockets of unpersuasive voters in swing states than on fostering hopes of winning new voters himself.

But Trump’s behavior carries its own risks. His antics last week, including a grinning, thumbs-up photo-op at Arlington National Cemetery that may have broken the law, could reinforce Harris’ warnings that Americans are hungry for a chance to put the bitterness and chaos of the Trump era behind them.

While Harris has restored the contest to a close race, her campaign acknowledges the still-potent threat posed by Trump. “Make no mistake: The next 65 days are going to be very tough,” Harris campaign manager Jennifer O’Malley Dillion wrote in a weekend memo, despite arguing that the vice president has multiple paths to the White House. “This race will remain incredibly close, and the voters who will decide this election will have an extraordinary amount of work to do to convince them.”

Harris campaigned in Detroit and with Biden in Pittsburgh to mark Labor Day on Monday, reflecting the importance of union members. Blue-collar workers traditionally voted Democratic, but Trump’s cultural transformation of the GOP now appeals to workers, especially in rural areas. And Harris’ appearance with Biden in the Steel City offered a preview of how the lame-duck president could help her campaign in a state and among a voting demographic where he remains popular.

The campaign shift comes a week before a pivotal meeting between Harris and Trump on a debate stage scheduled for Sept. 10 in Philadelphia — one of the last foreseeable turning points of this campaign, with mail-in voting set to begin later this week.

Trump’s furious political offensive is a warning to Harris about what lies ahead and underscores how difficult it will be to extend the smooth rollout of her sudden candidacy, her choice of Walz and her successful convention. But the ex-president’s intensity is also a sign — reflected in favorable polling numbers nationally and in swing states — that his early efforts to define her negatively have not worked.

Harris has been criticized by Republicans for a lack of policy specificity and for reversing previous positions on fracking and immigration. But her adoption of centrist positions also appears to be undercutting Trump and undermining his efforts to mount a decisive policy attack. Her decision to crack down on high grocery prices with a promise to take on supermarket giants may explain how she has narrowed the gap with Trump over who is most trusted on the economy.

The outcry over Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery last week also showed how much the ex-president could damage his policies as much as hers.

Trump’s tribute to 13 U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing during the chaotic U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan in 2021 underscores one of the worst moments of the Biden-Harris administration. And while the vice president has participated in Situation Room meetings about the crisis, it’s not yet clear whether Trump can saddle her with personal responsibility for the deaths in the minds of voters, given that Biden was commander in chief at the time.

Harris moved to counter Trump’s Afghan move when she wrote on social media that he had “disrespected sacred ground for a political stunt” by filming campaign videos at graves and that it was part of a pattern of belittling the sacrifices of American service members. Trump responded by posting videos of some of the fallen soldiers’ relatives accusing Harris and Biden of complicity in the murder of their loved ones and endorsing Trump.

The harrowing episode showed how Trump is willing to cross lines that conventional politicians would consider taboo. While some voters might see him as honoring fallen soldiers, others might agree with Harris that he is exploiting the deaths of Americans in foreign wars for political gain.

On other issues, Harris refuses to be dragged into political fights with Trump that could tarnish her image. For example, the vice president was asked in an exclusive interview last week by CNN’s Dana Bash about Trump’s claim that she “just happened to go black” for political reasons. “Same old tired playbook. Next question, please,” Harris said.

Harris’ campaign, however, did jump on Trump’s argument that he did nothing wrong in 2020. The former president said in an interview with Fox News that aired Sunday: “Who heard that you were indicted for interference in a presidential election, when you have every right to be?”

Harris-Walz spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika applied his remarks to the campaign’s broader argument that it’s time to consign Trump’s dictatorial instincts to the past. “The American people are ready for a new way forward. They know that Vice President Harris is the tough prosecutor we need to cut through the chaos, fear and division and uphold the rule of law,” Chitika said.

The exchange sums up the bets at the heart of the campaign’s bitter endgame: Trump is confident he will do everything he can to topple Harris; the vice president is betting his extreme efforts will convince enough voters he is unfit to return to the White House.