Historian Niall Ferguson said Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris' “joyful reboot” of her political career stands in stark contrast to former President Trump's debate over substantive issues.

Harris has gained momentum in the polls since Biden announced on July 21 that he was withdrawing his intention to seek reelection, and currently holds a 1.5 percentage point lead over former President Donald Trump in national head-to-head races. According to Compared to an average of RealClearPolitics polls conducted between July 31 and Aug. 18, the contrasting tones of the Harris and Trump campaigns are like a clash between the 2023 blockbuster movies “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” Ferguson said. (Related: “When I lost the Washington Post editorial board”: Karl Rove calls Harris' first policy speech a “disaster.”)

“I was wondering why this election was starting to feel familiar, and then I saw this amazing and joyous reboot of Kamala Harris' political career, and then I moved on to interviews with Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and all of a sudden I realized, Kamala Harris is transporting us to Barbie's world where everything is great and we don't need policies because she's just great,” Ferguson told Fox News host Martha MacCallum.

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“If you think back to the beginning of the Barbie movie, everyone's talking about how great Barbie is. There's even a moment where a reporter asks Barbie, 'Why are you so great?'” Ferguson continued. “It captures the atmosphere of the Democratic National Convention perfectly. There are no tough questions, no unscripted moments, everything is joyous in Kamala Harris' Barbie world. And then you look at Donald Trump, and it's pure Oppenheimer. Musk asks him, 'What are you worried about?' And he says, 'I'm not worried about global warming. I'm worried about nuclear warming. I'm worried about World War III.' Well, that's the Oppenheimer movie, isn't it? The atmosphere between these two is very similar to last year's film, which I think is why it feels so oddly familiar.”

Ferguson, who has not given any interviews or press conferences since Biden gave up his reelection bid, likened his profile to a Pravda propaganda piece from the Soviet Union.

“The question that Donald Trump repeatedly asks, 'Are you happier now than you were four years ago?' is a Ronald Reagan question that I think is very valid in 2024 because the key issues that he repeatedly brings up – illegal immigration, inflation and, of course, the foreign policy crisis that we've seen over the last three and a half years – are the top issues on the minds of a lot of voters, particularly the immigration crisis, the southern border and inflation, which is peaking in 2022,” Ferguson said.

“Inflation has come down, but prices have not gone down, and people notice that especially when they look at their grocery bill,” Ferguson continued. “One of the policy proposals to come out of Harris' utterly hollow campaign so far was a surprisingly medieval solution: fining food retailers for price gouging. It's an idea that has been tried and failed many times, most notably in the 1970s.” (RELATED: 'I intend to move forward': Harris Faulkner spars with liberal guest over VP's 'journalism blunder')

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“So essentially I think the Harris campaign has a big problem. It's very hard for her to separate herself from her mistakes on immigration, her mistakes on inflation, her many mistakes on foreign policy,” Ferguson said. “And it's a great question for Trump to ask: 'Are you happier now than you were four years ago?'”

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