US election: Donald Trump’s team hopes Joe Biden stays in race as ex-President changes tone, sends warning about Governor Gavin Newsom

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Chesapeake on Friday. Photo / AP

Donald Trump hailed Joe Biden as his most dangerous rival in a speech on Friday, in what some see as a bid to stave off having the President replaced with a more formidable opponent.

At a rally in Virginia on Friday, Trump revelled in the criticism of President Biden’s shambolic performance in the first presidential debate, seeing it as an acknowledgement of his victory.

He mocked the President’s apparent over-preparation for the event, saying: “He studied so hard that he didn’t know what the hell he was doing.”

But the Republican candidate also peppered his speech with compliments to Biden, saying he was a better debater and more popular than any alternative.

“It’s hard to believe, but Crooked Joe Biden polls better than those people,” he said.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Chesapeake on Friday. Photo / AP

“They wouldn’t have done any better” in the debate, he added. “No one else would have been better.”

Referring to California Governor Gavin Newsom, Trump said: “He can’t run California, he’s one of the worst governors. He’s a bad governor, he can’t run California. People are leaving. One of the most beautiful places on earth.”

“He’s got lousy poll numbers and you take a look at some of the others,” said Trump, adding that Vice President Kamala Harris and former First Lady Michele Obama poll badly as potential candidates too.

President Joe Biden (right) and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump participate in a presidential debate hosted by CNN. Photo / AP

Trump’s speech appeared to reflect the concerns of some of his campaign advisers, one of whom told NBC that Biden’s poor debate performance was “the sum of all my fears” in that it might force him out of the race.

A few weeks ago, Trump had made the contrasting statement that he doubted Biden would even still be running come election time.

“He has no clue, he doesn’t, if you look at him, he doesn’t know where he is,” Trump told WABC 770 AM. “You know that, I know that, everybody knows that.

“And I doubt he will even be running frankly, I just can’t even imagine it,” he added.

He went on to say on Friday that Biden’s apparent lack of mental acuity was not age-related. “It’s not his age, it’s his competence,” he said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks to reporters after a presidential debate between Biden and Trump in Atlanta. Photo / AP

Tonya Morris, from Cincinnati, reacts during the presidential debate. Photo / AP

Observers believe that Trump and his team’s attempts to now downplay Biden’s age is a move by his campaign to avoid him facing a younger, more electable candidate.

“Democrats are in absolute disarray,” Trump adviser Brian Hughes told NBC News.

“They fear that they might have made a terrible mistake. I hope that no one lets them off the hook. If they think they can just walk away from Joe Biden, it would be a level of dishonesty that they should be called out on.”

Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump campaign adviser, told the broadcaster “Biden’s not going anywhere”.