DONALD TRUMP SPOKE at the Republican National Convention for more than 90 minutes, often going off script. But he never once said “Kamala Harris”. The former president and his advisers built a campaign around attacking Joe Biden and stuck to that message relentlessly. Yet Mr Trump has found himself with a new rival just over 100 days out from the election. The Trump team’s modified message began to take shape almost as soon as Mr Biden had dropped out and Ms Harris began to consolidate support for the Democratic nomination.

Even if Mr Trump’s advisers preferred a run against a collapsing Biden campaign, they appear set to stick with much of their earlier strategy. As vice-president, Ms Harris has tied herself more closely to Mr Biden’s unpopular administration than has any other politician in America—opening her up to attacks over stubborn inflation, multiplying international crises and chaos at the southern border. “Harris will be even WORSE for the people of our Nation than Joe Biden. Harris has been the Enabler in Chief for Crooked Joe this entire time,” Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, the Trump campaign’s top officials, wrote on July 21st. “Harris must defend the failed Biden Administration AND her liberal, weak-on-crime record in CA.”