Trump Campaign Pushes Back on Reports He’s ‘Exhausted’

(Left) Former President Donald Trump at a roundtable discussion with community members in Auburn Hills, Mich., on Oct. 18, 2024. (Right) Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event in Lansing, Mich., on Oct. 18, 2024. Win McNamee/Getty Images; Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images

Members of former President Donald Trump’s campaign and the former president himself pushed back on claims that Trump is “exhausted” in multiple reports last week that cited anonymous sources.

“I’ve gone 48 days now without a rest,” Trump told reporters. “Tell me when you’ve seen me take even a little bit of a rest. I’m not even tired, I’m really exhilarated.”

Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Epoch Times that such reports are “unequivocally false,” saying that Trump is “running laps around” his Democratic opponent on the campaign trail.

The 45th president has made numerous media, campaign, and rally appearances in recent weeks, with just over two weeks to go before the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Multiple reports late last week and over the weekend that made the claims that Trump has been “exhausted” appear to be making a case that the former president, 78, is too old to be president. Those articles, which primarily cited anonymous sources, also asserted that he skipped events and interviews.

Meanwhile, David Plouffe, a top campaign adviser for Vice President Kamala Harris, said on CNN that it “is important” to speak about Trump’s energy levels while questioning whether Trump is “fit to be president.”

Harris made the same assertions at an afternoon rally.

“Being president of the United States is probably one of the hardest jobs in the world and we really do need to ask, if he’s exhausted on the campaign trail, is he fit to do the job?” Harris said.

But Trump and his campaign pushed back against her claims and the Politico report.

Trump “has sat down for nearly three times as many interviews as she has, including a contentious interview with Bloomberg ... Trump has more energy, and a harder work ethic, than anyone in politics,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt also noted that Harris herself declined to take an interview with Bloomberg, while Trump himself pushed back reporters’ questions about those claims on Friday.

“I haven’t canceled,” Trump said.

“She doesn’t go to any events ... she didn’t even show up for the Catholics,” he told reporters, referring to Harris’s decision to not attend the bipartisan Al Smith dinner that traditionally hosts both presidential candidates as well as numerous high-level New York politicians and business leaders for a friendly comedic roast.

“It was insulting. All they are is sound bites,” he added, referring to a prerecorded video that was sent by team Harris for the dinner that included former “Saturday Night Live” star Molly Shannon.

On Friday, he spent 40 minutes on set with the hosts of “Fox & Friends” before he joined “The Dan Bongino Show,” a video podcast, and taped an interview with Mark Calaway, the wrestler famously known as “The Undertaker,” for his “Six Feet Under” podcast. He also attended an editorial meeting with Fox News and the New York Post before he departed for a multi-stop trip to Michigan.

An Epoch Times review of Trump’s schedule shows that in about 18 days since the start of October, Trump has held at least two-dozen in-person public events across about two-dozen cities in 12 different states.

Harris attended a church service in Georgia on Sunday, while Trump is slated to hold a town hall event in Pennsylvania. He is also expected to visit a McDonald’s location today to work a fryer.

Election Day, which is Tuesday, Nov. 5, is just 16 days away. More than 13 million people have already cast their ballots.

The Epoch Times contacted the Harris campaign for comment Sunday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.