WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Kamala Harris and Donald Trump begin the final weekend of the most tense U.S. presidential campaign in modern times with a series of swing state rallies that will test their endurance – and their ability to persuade the government. the last undecided voters in 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 – 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.” “.

In an interview with Fox News Saturday morning, Trump criticized the state of the economy under the Biden-Harris administration, calling the disappointing jobs numbers released Friday a “gift to me.”

The candidates’ hectic schedules will continue through Monday, culminating with late-night 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 72 million ballots already cast, including a record four million in Georgia, where Democrats are seeking to do everything they can to keep the state in their column.

Opinion polls continue to show a tied race, particularly in the seven battleground states likely to determine the outcome of the U.S. Electoral College system, leaving the Republican businessman and his Democratic rival at 60 fighting hard to remove even a fragment of support from 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.

Thousands of women were expected to demonstrate Saturday, under the theme “We Will Not Come Back,” in cities across the country in support of Harris and abortion rights.

But as she worked to appeal to female voters of all parties, using issues such as abortion and health care, Trump attacked a Democratic television ad featuring his supporters’ wives secretly voting for Harris.

“Can you imagine a woman who doesn’t tell her husband who she’s voting for? » he asked on Fox News Saturday morning.

Harris, who previously criticized Trump for saying he would protect women “whether they like it or not,” encouraged voters to “finally move on” from 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 supporters in Little Chute on Friday , in Wisconsin.

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 — despite experts saying the The overall economy is strong.

He also warned that “a 1929-style economic depression” would ensue if Harris was elected. Speaking on Fox on Saturday, Trump described the weak jobs data released Friday as “the worst ever employment numbers ever,” although analysts said the numbers were only a temporary blip.

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

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

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.” .

With the election just days away — and with Trump refusing to say whether he would accept the results if he loses — businesses in the capital Washington have begun shuttering as city officials warn of a “safe environment fluid and unpredictable” in the days following the elections. the polling stations close.

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