It was great. Let’s see how badly Donald Trump has treated Kamala Harris. Since he descended the escalator at Trump Tower in 2015, he has been sparring with rival after rival with aliases, lies and nasty conspiracies.

Joe Biden was indeed able to beat him in 2020, but Trump shouldn’t take much credit for the fact that Biden ultimately had to withdraw from reelection. The “sleepy Joe” and “low-energy Joe” labels stuck with voters long before the party was forced to acknowledge that it wasn’t just the escalators that the 81-year-old was suffering from.

But now Trump may regret it. Joe Biden was the best opponent he could have. The strategy was in place. Trump could win without losing a round on the golf course. After the assassination, many thought it was over.

Then everything turned upside down.

Kamala Harris is Trump’s worst nightmare. In record time, she has galvanized the party, pulled voters off the fence and created a buzz Democrats haven’t seen since Obama. It all culminated in a wildly euphoric rally in Chicago last week, and polls show that enthusiasm extends to voters.

Kamala Harris leads at the national level. It is advancing in swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, tying in Arizona and gaining ground in Georgia. The primary candidate switch also extended to the Democratic congressional candidates. It’s a dramatic takeover of the presidential candidate who was thrown into the election on the side of his predecessor, who many in the party doubted. Trump and the right hardly took her seriously. In addition, Kamala chose a running mate, Tim Walz, who has become America’s new darling, if the polls are to be believed, as opposed to Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, who owes his charisma to being in the red in the polls.

I certainly know that many Democrats are still reeling from the shock of polls predicting a Hillary Clinton win in 2016. But the marked shift in the polls signals a shift in sentiment that is making the Trump campaign nervous for every reason.

What did Donald Trump do? To respond? Between golf swings, he managed to hit Truth Social. He grumbled, farted, and responded to every little swipe from the Democrats. As if waiting, he wasted two days fuming at Barack's harassment. Hussein Obama, who still seems obsessed with him, called into Fox News live and spoke incoherently for ten minutes before the hosts had to cut him off. They made fun of him on Fox News.

It's absolutely a crisis.

Many media outlets are now reporting. The Trump camp has changed its strategy. Donald Trump needs to put down the keyboard and get back on the field. The staff boasts that we will now see “Trump on steroids,” in other words, here the rhetoric will be raised several times. It will be as dirty and brutal as expected. But the media doesn’t need “sources at Mar-a-Lago” to know that Trump is frustrated and angry. Everyone can see it, hear it, and read it. The question is whether someone will be able to rein in Trump’s anger and resume a campaign that still seems built on the opponent, Biden.

For weeks, Republicans have been begging Trump to stick to the political message instead of spewing nonsense about Kamala, a screed that even Republicans admit can be seen as sexist and racist. A few weeks ago, the campaign tried to get him to give a speech on economic policy. Trump looked like he was falling asleep while reading the numbers on a teleprompter. He poured out what he does best, nonstop. Personal attacks and boasts. In between, he sighed with pride and said, “Well, I guess I’m here to talk about money.”

Let Trump be TrumpMany insist. He's 78. He won't change. Maybe he's realistic.

But that’s shameful for Trump and good for Kamala Harris. Perhaps her biggest weakness is the economy. Although international economists have praised Biden/Harris for reversing the recession faster than some other major economies, most people are still suffering from rising prices and costs. Focus groups always say: we were better off under Trump. Moreover, in a country like the United States, large parts of the middle class will be skeptical of higher taxes on the rich, more regulatory reforms, and social welfare.

Donald Trump’s steroid use is also an asset to Kamala. She and the campaign have shown in a few weeks that they have been able to crack the Trump code by mocking him, belittling him. He hates it. Trump now spends more time claiming he is not “weird” than talking about their differences. A few days ago, he felt compelled to defend the fact that he constantly talks about his good relationship with dictators and authoritarian leaders: Some say it’s a kind of diagnosis. I see nothing wrong with that.

These “people” are Kamala's supporters. They have crawled under Trump's thin skin and are living freely in his head. He can only respond.

Instead of hitting Democrats Wherever he can, Trump calls a jovial moderate from Minnesota a creepy communist, ever since Tim Walz introduced school lunches for all in his state. He mocks Walz for giving free tampons to girls in school. He tried “Tampon Tim.” As a swear word. Voters can agree or disagree that it’s right to spend money on school lunches and tampons, just like here in Norway, but few would call that communism. The era of periods and tampons, on the other hand, marks you as downright old-fashioned.

The right is frustrated by Tim Walz’s appeal to Midwestern voters, even accusing his constant use of the word “neighbor” of being a code word for socialism. It’s unlikely to bite people in the Midwest, where it’s a word of honor and a rule of life.

Donald Trump is not alone Excited that nothing is biting Kamala. He is scared. Recently, it was known that the Trump camp began arguing about the first debate between them, allegedly to find an excuse to cancel it. In the debate between Trump and Biden, new rules were introduced, which meant, among other things, turning off the microphone of one of them while the other was speaking.

– Very demanding

Kamala’s people have come out in force and said she doesn’t want it this way. She’s a new (read younger) candidate who wants a proper debate. She’s coping well without such old-fashioned aides. Anyone who has seen Attorney General Harris in action, or Senator Harris in hearings, knows she’s downright tough. She made incoming Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh cry. But far more important, Trump’s attempts to bully her have so far backfired. She shrugged when reporters asked her to respond to Trump’s actions and characteristics: I don’t get it. I’m keen to talk to voters.

Even Trump seems to He fears that his superpowers, wild lies, and bullying of the opponent won't work this time.

But there’s a more important reason Donald Trump is starting to sweat than that he hates losing. If he loses the election, the legal battle against him will continue. His choice could be between the White House and prison.