Donald Trump Accidentally Compliments Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday unknowingly complimented Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and California Governor Gavin Newsom during a stop at the southern border in Cochise County, Arizona.

During his remarks to reporters, Trump said, “California, you can’t go into San Francisco. It’s not livable. Fifteen years ago, it was the best city in the country, one of the best cities in the world, and now you can’t do anything. Look at what she’s done, and now she’s going to be president. And she’s going to do the exact same thing.”

Fifteen years ago, however, Harris was San Francisco’s district attorney, while Newsom was the city’s mayor. Both served in those roles for The Golden City from 2004 to 2011.

In a post to X, formerly Twitter, Newsom responded, “Thanks, @realDonaldTrump!!”

Last week, Trump lawyer Alina Habba released a video on TikTok in which she claimed Californians to whom she had spoken have “had it with Governor Gavin Newsom’s really liberal policies” before concluding: “Let’s flip California guys.”

However, recent polling shows Republicans have a mammoth task if they want to win The Golden State for Trump in November, with two recent surveys putting him 25 and 26 points respectively behind Harris.

Since Harris, a California native, replaced President Joe Biden as the Democrats’ 2024 expected nominee late last month, Trump has fallen back in the polls, with more than a dozen surveys giving the popular vote led to the vice president.

Speaking at a news conference on August 15, Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, took similar aim at Harris with regard to her time as California’s attorney general, claiming she had “destroyed San Francisco” and would “do the same thing to our country” if elected to the White House.

After her time as San Francisco’s district attorney, Harris was elected twice and served as California’s AG from 2011 to 2017. She was a U.S. senator from The Golden State from 2017 to 2021 before being chosen as Biden’s running mate.

Newsom, now in his second term as governor, was California’s lieutenant governor from 2011 to 2019.

Speaking in a TikTok video posted on August 15, Habba, who has emerged as a prominent Trump media advocate, said: “I am in the great city of Los Angeles and although the state is pretty liberal, I’m looking around and I was talking to some of the drivers and the people I’ve met and they all say they’ve had it with Gavin Newsom’s really liberal policies with the migrants coming in taking their jobs, ruining their streets and creating unsafe surroundings. So let’s flip California guys.”

A survey of 3,765 likely voters in California, conducted from July 31 to August 11 by the University of California, Berkeley, and co-sponsored by The Los Angeles Times, found Harris was leading Trump by 25 points, with 59 percent of the vote against Trump’s 34 percent.

Harris’ margin over Trump was 7 points higher than the figure recorded by the university with Biden in the race, according to a survey before the president announced he was dropping out on July 21.

Newsweek contacted representatives of the 2024 Trump and Harris campaigns for comment via email on Thursday night.

Follow Newsweek‘s live DNC blog for updates here.