Donald Trump berates Joe Biden, prepares to campaign against Kamala Harris

WASHINGTON – Former president and current GOP nominee Donald Trump wasn't exactly magnanimous when he first heard the news on Sunday about President Joe Biden.

“He is the worst president in the history of our country," Trump told CNN in a phone interview just minutes after Biden announced he was withdrawing from the presidential race. "He goes down as the single worst president by far in the history of our country.”

Trump also said he expects to run against Vice President Kamala Harris, and predicted he would win.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said he would continue to campaign against the Biden administration's record, and that "we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly."

Democrats and other Trump opponents said he should not be too confident, and that Harris or another new Democratic candidate can inject new energy into the race. Some Democrats also pointed out that, with Biden's withdrawal, the 78-year-old Trump is the oldest presidential nominee in U.S. history.

"In one of the most stunning acts of patriotism of my lifetime – & worst news possible for Trump – Biden is out," said Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, speaking on the social media platform X.

Trump and his campaign must now shift their emphasis to another Democrat; he and his aides have said for days that, if Biden did decide to pull out, they expect to run against Harris.

During last week's Republican convention, Trump and his aides said they would prefer to keep running against Biden because he would have been the easiest Democrat to beat.

They also said they were developing campaign and ad plans against Harris, seeking to link her to the Biden administration on issues like inflation and border security, and to Biden himself.

Speaking to Fox News Digital on Sunday, Trump said that he would make an issue of Biden’s decision to continue on as president. “He is not fit to serve," Trump said. "And I ask – who is going to be running the country for the next five months?"

During an event last week during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump adviser Chris LaCivita accused Democrats of seeking a "coup" against Biden, a theme that other Trump Republicans picked up in the hours after Sunday's announcement.

"The Democrat Party forced the Democrat nominee off the ballot, just over 100 days before the election," said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “Having invalidated the votes of more than 14 million Americans who selected Joe Biden to be the Democrat nominee for president, the self-proclaimed ‘party of democracy’ has proven exactly the opposite."

On Sunday, LaCivita reposted a weekend statement by Harris: "As Vice President, I see @JoeBiden when the cameras are on and when the cameras are off – in the Oval Office, in the Situation Room, and on the campaign trail. Joe Biden is a leader who fights for the American people."

LaCivita commented, "Yes you did … and you lied about it every day."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's reaction to Biden dropping out: 'He is the worst'