Would Trump 'sales tax' cost $4,000 a year, as Harris says?published at 00:07 Greenwich Mean Time 30 October

00:07 GMT 30 October

By Ben Chu

A few moments ago, Kamala Harris claimed that a "Trump sales tax" would cost the average family “nearly 4000 more dollars a year".

This is a reference to Donald Trump’s plan to impose more tariffs – taxes on imported goods.

Economists say these can increase costs for consumers but it’s not guaranteed that they would go up by as much as Harris says.

The "almost $4,000" figure comes from analysis by the left-of-centre think tank the Centre for American Progress, external of Trump’s pledge to increase tariffs on all imported goods to 10-20% and all goods imported from China to 60%.

They took the amount the US buys in goods from abroad annually, figured out how much the new taxes on these goods would be and divided this by the number of households in the US.

It works out at $4,600 per household, but when you look at “middle income” families you get a figure of $3,900 a year.

Other estimates are lower. The Peterson Institute reckons the impact, external would be closer to $1,700 a year (for tariffs at 10%) or $2,500 (at 20%).

Trump insists the cost of his tariffs would be felt by foreign countries instead, external.

It is difficult to assess the exact impact of these taxes but studies, on previous tariffs, have suggested that a lot of the economic cost was ultimately borne by American businesses and consumers.

Read more here.

Iona Hampson
Reporting from the Ellipse in Washington DC

As soon as Kamala Harris took to the stage, the majority of the crowd started waving American flags that had been distributed my organisers - but when the vice-president started to speak you could hear murmurs and shouts in the crowd.

Security started escorted people out at various points in the audience.

One shouted "stop the genocide" another held a sign saying "arms embargo now".

The crowd is loud and Harris's mic is very loud - but you can still hear the pro-Palestinian protest held by the iconic Washington monument nearby.

Image source, Reuters

Harris invokes her pledge to protect abortion rights, arguably the core issue of her campaign.

"I believe in the fundamental freedom of Americans to make decisions about their own bodies," she says.

She says that if Congress passes a bill to restore the protections of Roe v Wade, the US Supreme Court decision that established national abortion rights and was struck down in 2022, she would "proudly" sign it into law.

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington DC

Image source, Reuters

A Harris campaign official tells the BBC's US partner, CBS News, that more than 75,000 people have come to downtown DC to watch Harris speak.

Lines to get in began forming more than five hours before the vice-president took the stage.

Large portions of the crowd were earlier told that the Ellipse, an area near the White House where Harris is speaking, was full and that they should watch from elsewhere on the National Mall.

Image source, Reuters

Kayla Epstein
US reporter

About 10 minutes into her speech, Kamala Harris arrives at what polls and interviews indicate is the number one issue for voters in this election: the economy and cost of living.

"Now our biggest challenge is to lower costs, costs that were rising even before the pandemic and that are still too high," Harris says. "I get it."

She mentions her agenda items to lower prescription drug prices and help first time home buyers afford a down-payments. She pledges to "cut the red tape" to build more housing.

Voters are extremely conscious of the cost of basic needs like housing and groceries this year - and many of them will be making their votes based on how they feel about the economy.

Harris notes that it's normal to disagree, and tells the crowd: "We like a good debate, don't we?"

"We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms," she says. "It is time to turn the page on the drama and the conflict, the fear and division. It is time for a new generation of leadership in America."

Image source, Reuters

Harris's location for this rally - known as the Ellipse - is deliberate. It's meant to evoke a crucial day in Trump's presidency: 6 January 2021, the day of the riot at the US Capitol.

Trump spoke to his supporters that day, before thousands of them marched on the US Congress just a few blocks away, trying to stop it from certifying the election he lost in 2020.

Harris tells the crowd Trump "stood at this very spot nearly four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election, an election that he knew he lost".

"This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and out for unchecked power," she says of Trump.

Harris is trying to remind voters - specifically undecided ones - of the most controversial aspects of the Trump presidency.

"One week from today, you will have the chance to make a decision that directly impacts your life, the life of your family and the future of this country we love," Harris begins.

She says the election is a "more than just a choice between two parties, and two different candidates".

"It is a choice about whether we have a country, rooted in freedom, for every American, or ruled by chaos and division," she tells the crowds.

Image source, Reuters

Harris is taking to the stage before a crowd of thousands in Washington DC. She's about to make her closing pitch to the American people.

"Good evening America!" she says.

Though she will continue to campaign all the way to election day, this speech is being billed as a capstone to her campaign. You can watch it at the top of this live page.

She is expected to focus on the meaning of leadership and why she believes it is time to turn the page on Trump's political era.

At the same time, she will hit upon issues that polls show voters prioritise in this election - like the economy and abortion - to argue that her vision for America is the the way forward for the country.

While we wait for Donald Trump's rally in Allentown, we're going back to his earlier engagement in Pennsylvania, a roundtable in Drexel Hill.

"This is supposed to be just a little group... it's a lot of people in here," he said with a laugh soon after he arrived.

While the roundtable was expected to focus on Medicare and other issues important to business, Trump spoke about a wide range of issues, and repeated lines from his standard campaign speech.

Of the election, he said it is a choice of having "four more years of total failure", or "the four greatest years in the history of our country".

He has been sounding a pessimistic tone lately, calling the US a "garbage can" in recent speeches Today, he said the country is "run by stupid fools".

He also said the US has been set back badly in "every single way" under the current president, whom he again called "Sleepy Joe Biden", and referenced issues such as inflation and high crime rates

He repeated that if he had been president in 2022 Russia's Putin would not have invaded Ukraine.

Referring to himself as the "best border president" America has ever had, he promised that if he is elected "we're gonna do the largest deportation" in the history of the US.

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington DC

The love for Democrats in downtown DC this evening, where Kamala Harris's rally is due to start shortly, may be ubiquitous - but it's not universal.

Along the route to enter the rally, there are signs of dissent against the vice-president from pro-Palestinian protesters - from Wanted signs for “Killer Kamala” to posters calling for a ceasefire.

David, a Howard University student, says Harris must commit to an arms embargo with Israel to earn his vote.

“That’s all we’re asking for. We’re not asking for universal healthcare. We should be but we’re not,” he says.

David believes Green Party candidate Jill Stein will take away votes from Harris and cause her to lose. Some people here are engaging with him politely but others curse at him.

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington DC

David, 64, is proudly a “White Dude For Harris” who believes she is “the best candidate right now”.

“It worries me that not enough men - and I think all men for that matter - are not recognising the jeopardy our women will be in if Trump is elected president,” he says.

“For white men, it’s about fear,” he goes on. “Trump has a way of getting people anxious about things that are really not in reality and fear motivates people.”

David tells me he wants to hear Harris talk about “an America that is multicultural, multi-ethnic, looks out for everybody’s interests and advances everybody in every way”.

Image source, Getty Images

Now, we turn for a moment from the Allentown and Washington rallies.

The US Supreme Court has rejected two appeals from Robert F Kennedy Jr to have his name taken off presidential ballots in the swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin.

RFK, a former Democrat, gave up his independent bid for the White House in August and threw his support behind Trump. He has been fighting to have his name removed from several states' ballots so as not to compete for votes with Trump.

He had asked the highest court in the land to force the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin to take his name off, arguing that leaving it on the ballots would amount to a violation of his First Amendment right to free expression.

Lawyers for the states, which could decide whether Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris becomes president, argued that it was too late to have his name removed, and that ballots had already been printed.

The rulings by the court's majority did not give a reason for their rejection, which is common for emergency appeals. Last month, the Supreme Court rejected RFK's to have his name added to the ballot in New York.

Will Grant
Reporting from Pennsylvania

Image source, BBC / Will Grant

Among the Trump supporters winding their way into his rally in Allentown, are some holding signs which read “Boricuas con Trump” - meaning Puerto Ricans for Trump.

Two, Fermin and Saila, feel the controversy over offensive comments about Puerto Rico made by a comedian at Trump’s rally in Madison Square Garden is being blown out of proportion.

"Trump doesn’t feel that way about Puerto Rico, there's no discrimination," says Fermin, insisting the former president consistently showed respect for the US territory and that he did not mishandle the federal response to Hurricane Maria in 2017.

They blame the island's government, and not Trump, for Puerto Rico's problems.

Saila believes a second Trump administration would benefit Latinos in the US more generally - through greater prosperity, lower prices and controlling undocumented immigration at the southern border.

"He doesn't want to get rid of all migrants," Saila says, adding she thinks that he wants immigrants to come into the country legally, to work and to not commit crimes.

No one carrying the Puerto Ricans for Trump signs seems to think the disparaging joke would harm his campaign.

"I prefer someone like him who tells you things as they are and doesn't stab you in the back", adds Fermin.

Image source, Reuters

After speaking at a press conference at his home in Florida, Trump travelled to Pennsylvania in his effort to win over the Keystone State, one of the states that will decide the election.

Now we're expecting him to hold a rally in the city of Allentown, due to begin at 19:00 EDT (23:00 GMT).

Allentown's schools were shut earlier in the day and residents warned by police to stay away from downtown due to increased foot traffic.

Trump's visit to a majority-Latino region comes amid a continuing backlash to derogatory comments made about Puerto Rico by one of the speakers at his Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

This afternoon he spoke at a roundtable discussion in the Philadelphia suburb of Drexel Hill. He was more than 40 minutes late to the event, so the rally could also be delayed.

Pennsylvania: At a glance

Samira Hussain
Reporting from Washington DC

At the Ellipse - a huge stretch of grass close to the White House in Washington DC - where the crowd is awaiting the arrival of Harris, who will deliver her final message of the campaign, a DJ is spinning tunes, hyping up the crowd.

About 20 minutes ago, cheers went up as the MC announced just 90 minutes before the vice-president takes the stage.

Harris's motorcade just drove by in downtown Washington DC.

She eventually is heading toward the Ellipse. Downtown DC is at an absolute standstill, most roads down have been closed either for her or for the crowds waiting to get in to the rally.

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington DC

My colleagues have been bringing you the international view of the US election today, while I've been down at the National Mall speaking to voters and Washington DC visitors ahead of Kamala Harris's speech here tonight.

A little earlier, I ran into Christiane Kammerlander and Jürgen Appeldorn, two tourists visiting from Germany and exploring the National Mall area this afternoon. They also have their own view of how the US election is being seen from abroad.

Christiane says most Germans are “shocked” by the political strength of Donald Trump but expect that Kamala Harris will ultimately prevail: "We are hoping for the best."

Trump "can’t be trusted, can't be believed", she tells me.

"He's used his voice to destroy so many things: the negotiations with Iran, discussions with political leaders… I will never trust him," she says.

"German politics is boring - but I prefer boring," she adds.

Dulcie Lee
Live editor, in Washington DC

We've been hearing from our correspondents about how the US election is being viewed from countries across the world and by international communities within the United States.

We're about to move to the latest news – Trump has been campaigning today in swing state Pennsylvania after appearing at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, while Kamala Harris is set to present her closing argument to voters here in Washington DC this evening – but first, catch up with the global perspective on this race:

• From the UK, our political editor Chris Mason runs through how the country is preparing for a new president

• In Russia, Moscow is watching two candidates with very different views on Ukraine, our Russia specialist Francis Scarr explains
• Traditionally, Iran has viewed Democrats and Republicans as cut from the same cloth – but beneath the surface it's more complex, BBC Monitoring's Sarbas Nazari says
• In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu hasn't hidden his appreciation for Trump - but political insiders see him as unpredictable, Middle East correspondent Lucy Williamson writes
• Mexico's first female president Claudia Sheinbaum says she doesn't mind who wins – but most Mexicans don't share her ambivalence, Mexico correspondent Will Grant says
• Our BBC Arabic correspondent says that tor many Arab American voters, the war in Gaza, and now Lebanon, has been a turning point in the US elections
• In Kyiv, Ukraine correspondent James Waterhouse says officials and ordinary people alike are wondering how an election 5,000 miles away will affect their lives as they face down another winter at war
• And north of the border, Justin Trudeau's government is taking the US-Canada relationship very seriously, as it remains vital for Ottawa's prosperity and security

The BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet has taken a zoomed-out view, examining in-depth multiple facets of how the outcome of the US election could affect regions around the world - including matters of war and peace, the global economy and climate change.

You can also catch up with the latest season of the BBC's The Global Story podcast, which is looking at the United States' relationship with countries around the world. If you’re listening in the UK, listen on BBC Sound. If you’re outside the UK, listen wherever you get your podcasts, external.

There's lots more to come, so stick with us.

Bertin Huynh
BBC Asian Network News

When Rajagopal Chellapilla reflects on the Biden-Harris administration, he describes the policies as “disastrous”.

“The mishandling of the southern border and the current state of the economy...” the Republican voter tells BBC Asian Network News. “I feel like for the progress of this nation, we need Donald Trump as the president.”

For many South Asians in the US, there’s often been a feeling of pride seeing Kamala Harris as a candidate of South Asian heritage – a first ever in history.

But Rajagopal, from Indiana, says he doesn’t share in that.

“When Vivek Ramaswamy was running [to be Republican nominee], that did make me proud," he says .“It’s because of who they are, what they stand for and what their policies are."

James Waterhouse
Ukraine correspondent in Kyiv

Image source, Getty Images

On November 5, whether they know it or not, Americans will be voting on Ukraine’s future.

Here in the capital Kyiv, there is a palpable flurry of diplomatic activity as officials try to secure as much military aid as possible from the outgoing Biden administration.

"We should be pretty worried," Dr Evelyn Farkas, a former US national security advisor says on her visit. "Donald Trump is not a friend of Ukraine; he thinks he’s a friend of Vladimir Putin’s."

While Kamala Harris - the clear favourite here - has suggested military aid would continue if she emerged the victor, it’s looking less likely to be sustained under a second term for Donald Trump.

However, across Ukraine’s south and east, we find a growing number of people who want the war to end immediately - and some even see a Donald Trump presidency as the best chance of bringing respite.

In October, the Russian army advanced 478 square kilometres into Ukrainian territory, a record since March 2022, according to analysis from the AFP news agency.

Ukraine is on the back foot, and with North Korea’s deepening involvement, there is a sense of urgency not seen since March 2022 either.