Kamala Harris 'not competent' to be US president, Ivanka better: Donald Trump

Kamala Harris is "not competent" to be president of the United States, incumbent president Donald Trump said as he addressed his supporters at a Republican campaign rally in New Hampshire on Friday.

Trump said he would support seeing a female president in the US but suggested that his daughter and senior White House advisor Ivanka Trump would be a better candidate for such a role.

"You know I want to see the first woman president also, but I don't want to see a woman president get into that position the way she'd do it, and she's not competent," Trump said.

"She's not competent," he said amidst applause from his supporters, a few of whom screamed Ivanka Trump, at an election rally on Friday.

"They're all saying, 'we want Ivanka'. I don't blame you," he said responding to his supporters.

Harris had been a presidential aspirant until last year before she dropped out of the race because of lack of popular support. Harris returned to political limelight after Joe Biden, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, picked her as his running mate in the November 3 election.

Also read | Trump says people protesting in Washington Thursday were 'thugs'

Born to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, Harris is the first Indian-American and first Black woman to be picked by a major American political party for the top post.

This was Trump's first election rally after he formally accepted the nomination of the Republican Party on Thursday for the presidential election.

Trump said Harris withdrew from the Democratic Party's presidential race before primary season kicked off as her popularity dropped down to single digit.

"How about her? Sheer beauty? What a beauty though. They pick a woman who starts off...She (Harris) starts off (her presidential campaign) sort of strong. She's one of the favourites. Within a period of a few months, she goes down, down 15, 12, 11, nine, eight, five, three, two," he said.

"Then she goes, I'm going to leave because I've decided that I want to leave. I want to leave. She left (the race of presidency) because she wouldn't have gotten any votes. She was terrible. And this would be your president possibly. I don't think so. I don't think so," Trump said, speculating on the possibility that Harris could emerge as a Democratic presidential candidate in 2024.

Hours before Trump delivered his acceptance speech from the South Lawn at the White House, Harris alleged that the president's policies have been "a reckless disregard" for the danger a pandemic would pose to American lives.

She said Trump has "failed at the most basic and important job of a President of the United States. He failed to protect the American people".