Fly lands on Trump's face during press event, echoing Mike Pence's viral 2020 debate moment

A fly landed on the face of former President Donald Trump during a press event Thursday, marking the second Trump-led campaign that featured a notable interaction with the insect.

The press event was intended to tie Trump's Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris , to inflation under the Biden-Harris administration a day after the Labor Department issued a mostly positive inflation report and ahead of Harris' first major policy speech Friday, when she's expected to call for the first-ever federal ban on grocery price-gouging .

At Trump's event at Trump International Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, the Republican presidential nominee was flanked by groceries, apparently causing multiple flies to buzz around Trump and even land on his face.

The visual came on a week that saw the Republican nominee lose major ground across multiple polls and his position as betting favorite in the race.

Social media reacts to Trump fly photo

The appearance of the fly harkened back to the 2020 vice-presidential debate, when a fly landed on then-Vice President Mike Pence's head and stayed there for a couple of minutes. The moment became a cultural touchpoint in the campaign that would be parodied and was used on merchandise by the Biden-Harris campaign.

Social media commentators, including USA TODAY humorist Rex Huppke , connected Thursday's fly appearance with the insect landing in 2020.

Trump's remarks overshadowed by fly

The circling flies stole headlines and social media attention to Trump's remarks, which veered off into campaign talking points on immigration and personal attacks on Harris.

"I don’t have a lot of respect for her, I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence," he said.

He also repeated false claims about winning the state of Pennsylvania in the 2020 election − a state he lost by more than 80,000 votes .

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fly lands on Trump's face during press event, echoing Mike Pence's viral 2020 debate moment