Kamala Harris and Donald Trump enter the final weekend of the most tense US presidential campaign in modern times with a series of rallies in swing states that will test their stamina – and their ability to win over remaining undecided voters of the country.

Harris, who is trying to become the nation’s first female president, will use rallies in Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan to push her message that Trump is a threat to American democracy.

Trump – who is seeking a sensational return to the White House after losing in 2020 and then becoming the first presidential candidate to be convicted of crimes – is promising a radical transformation of government from the right and aggressive trade wars to promote his policy of “America First.”

The 78-year-old, who gathered Friday evening in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, just miles from Harris’ event there, will cross paths with her again as Trump makes stops in North Carolina, Wisconsin. Virginia, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

Their frenetic schedule continues through Monday, culminating with nightly rallies — in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for Trump and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for Harris.

Election Day is Tuesday, but Americans have been voting early for weeks, with more than 70 million ballots already cast, including a record four million in Georgia, where Democrats are seeking to do everything they can to maintain statehood in their column.

Opinion polls continue to show a tied race, particularly in the seven battleground states likely to determine the outcome of America’s Electoral College system, leaving the Republican businessman and his Democratic rival at 60 fighting hard to wrest away even a fragment of support. each other’s camps.

Harris, currently President Joe Biden’s running mate, is doing this by appealing to centrist voters and propelling her base to the polls through robust ground play and get-out-the-vote efforts.

And by portraying Trump as a toxic authoritarian, she also encourages voters to finally “turn the page” on the former president.

“He is someone who is increasingly unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed by grievances – and this man is seeking unchecked power,” she told her supporters in Little Chute, in Wisconsin.

– “The thrill of a lifetime” –

Meanwhile, Trump has doubled down on his already extreme rhetoric in hopes of inspiring his loyal base to mobilize en masse.

“Kamala’s final message to America is that she hates you,” Trump fumed Friday night in Warren, Michigan, where he called the economy under Biden and Harris a disaster — something economists are making clear that this is not the case – and warned that “a 1929-style economic depression” would ensue if Harris was elected.

Citing his hawkish foreign policy views, Trump earlier conjured up the image of former Republican Rep. turned Harris supporter Liz Cheney getting shot.

“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her there with a rifle with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels, you know, when the guns are pointed in her face,” he said. Trump said.

Despite the rhetoric, Trump waxed nostalgic Friday about how his campaign experience over the past nine years has been “the thrill of his life.”

“And now we want to take that thrill and turn it into ‘let’s do business,’ right?”

Harris, the first black vice president and first Asian American vice president, meanwhile sought to harness the power of celebrities like Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen in the final days of the campaign.

Jennifer Lopez, a pop icon of Puerto Rican heritage, joined Harris on stage Thursday, amid a firestorm sparked by a Trump rally warm-up speaker calling the U.S. territory a “floating island of garbage.” .

Grammy-winning rapper Cardi B appeared with the nominee Friday night, asking the crowd in Milwaukee, “Are we ready to make history?”

With the election just days away — and Trump refusing to say whether he would accept the results if he loses — businesses in the capital, Washington, have begun closing their doors as city officials warn of a “fluid and secure security environment.” unpredictable” in the country. a few days after the polling stations closed.

Trump is already alleging fraud and cheating in key states like Pennsylvania, laying the groundwork for what many fear will be further unrest, following the violence that erupted at the U.S. Capitol following the 2020 vote.

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