Kamala Harris goes big on business

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Once you play, come back to read about:

• The Harris-Trump economic duel

• A potential October surprise

• The fall in US-Mexico border crossings

Kamala Harris wants you to know that she is, in fact, a capitalist, despite Donald Trump’s attempts to label her a communist.

She described her economic philosophy as both “pragmatic” and “capitalist” in a Pennsylvania speech yesterday, as she made her most direct appeal yet to businesses [free to read].

She recognised the “limitations of government” and said public-private sector partnerships were among the best ways to create jobs and “unlock economic opportunity”.

Harris, who has been under pressure to provide more detailed economic plans and clarify how they would differ from those of President Joe Biden, outlined her vision at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh in a blue-collar part of the swing state Pennsylvania.

In her most extensive comments about the US economy since taking over the top of the Democratic ticket, Harris positioned herself as a champion of the working and middle classes and insisted that Trump prioritised the wealthy. The vice-president also said she would introduce tax credits for companies that added “good union jobs” in manufacturing communities.

As Trump tries to outflank Harris on manufacturing policy, he has promised a “new American industrialism” with tax cuts for companies that produce goods domestically — and tariffs on those that do not. 

“American workers will no longer be worried about losing your jobs to foreign nations. Instead, foreign nations will be worried about losing their jobs to America,” he said in a speech in Savannah, Georgia, on Tuesday.

The former president went after John Deere, the maker of the iconic green tractors, for its plan to shift some production to Mexico, saying he’d slap them with huge tariffs.

“I’m just notifying John Deere right now: If you do that . . . we’re putting a 200 per cent tariff on everything that you want to sell into the United States.”

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Behind the scenes

Biden has struggled to rein in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country is still fighting in Gaza while dramatically ramping up its strikes on Hizbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon, and preparing for a possible ground invasion.

Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday proposed a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah, but the US president has been unwilling to exercise Washington’s leverage over Israel — by withholding military aid — partly for political reasons.

Michael Wahid Hanna, US programme director at Crisis Group, told the FT’s Andrew England and Felicia Schwartz that with the election so close, “it’s hard to imagine an American administration courting that level of diplomatic friction with Israel”.

Right now, Harris is at risk of losing votes from people who oppose US support for Israel’s military actions. But a spiralling conflict in the Middle East could damage her campaign, too, especially if US troops are drawn into combat.

“There are huge potential downside risks to the Harris campaign from an all-out war,” Hanna said, which could feed Trump’s argument that the Biden-Harris administration is weak on the world stage.

One former western intelligence official told Andrew and Felicia that the Israeli escalation provided Netanyahu with an “opportunity to make life difficult for the Biden administration”, in the belief that a Trump victory would best serve Netanyahu’s interests. The person added:

“If he could be the source of the October surprise that gives Trump an opportunity to come back, then he’d be very happy to do that.”

Datapoint

Illegal crossings over the US-Mexico border have been falling throughout 2024.

In July, 56,399 people crossed the border illegally, down sharply from a record 222,000 in December 2023. Though there was a slight uptick in August, border encounters — a proxy for unlawful crossings — were down 68 per cent compared with the previous year.

Part of this is due to Biden’s June crackdown on asylum seekers who crossed the border unlawfully; he’s pushed to have them use an app to make an appointment to apply.

The US is on track for the lowest number of annual border apprehensions since the Covid-19 pandemic started in 2020 — a surprise to many migration experts and policymakers.

Despite declining numbers, Trump is still seeking to make migration a point of weakness for Harris and the Democrats. Since the Biden-Harris administration has created more options to enter the country legally, it has opened up a new line of attack from Trump and his fellow Republicans.

A parole programme launched late last year allows 30,000 pre-screened people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to come to the US every month. These migrants have been settling down across the US, leading Republicans to claim they’re straining municipal resources and clashing culturally with residents. 

Case in point: Trump and Vance’s false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people’s pets.

Advocates say the new system is better in some ways, offering many people a safer (and legal) way to cross the border, but neither the US nor Mexico has created adequate infrastructure to protect the migrants or limit their impact on local populations.

Viewpoints