Trump says Harris ‘became a black person’ for political purposes during Chicago black journalists event
Former President Donald Trump told a black journalist conference Wednesday that he “didn’t know” Vice President Kamala Harris was “black” until recently — before trashing her as “fake, fake, fake” later at a rally in Pennsylvania.
The stunning remark about Harris’ racial identity came as Trump, 78, sought to woo minority voters by addressing the Windy City convention of the National Association for Black Journalists.
“I’ve known her a long time indirectly — not directly very much — and she was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was black — until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black,” Trump said.
“And now she wants to be known as black, so I don’t know — is she Indian or is she black? But you know what? I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t.”
Trump added: “She was Indian all of the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn, and she went, she became a black person and I think somebody should look into that.”
The vice president’s father is black and from Jamaica and her mother was born in India.
Harris graduated from the historically black Howard University in 1986 and was a member of a black sorority.
The astonishing comment came as Trump continues to seek out a leading line of attack against Harris, 59, who would be America’s first female president, the second of African ancestry and the first of South Asian descent.
“Everything about Kamala Harris’ rollout is phony and it’s fake,” Trump said at an evening rally in Harrisburg, Pa. — complaining about the size of the vice president’s 10,000-person rally in Atlanta Tuesday night, which rivaled his own trademark events.
Unlike Harris, who had rapper Megan Thee Stallion as her opening act, Trump said “we didn’t need a star” or “some entertainer to fill it up.”
Trump claimed Harris was in the process of a “personality makeover.”
“Don’t forget, four weeks ago, she was like considered the worst — not smart, terrible, the worst vice president in history,” Trump said. “All of a sudden, she’s the new Margaret Thatcher.”
Trump’s campaign in 2020 also sought to portray Harris as a “phony,” but he has vacillated in the current race, also attempting to portray her as a hard-charging “radical” and as incompetent.
The Republican nominee seemed to acknowledge he was having trouble picking a lane after President Biden dropped out of the race July 21 and endorsed Harris.
“The hard part is that three, four weeks ago, I was talking about ‘Biden is incompetent, he’s a horrible president. He’s the worst president in the history of the country.’ Now, I say, ‘She’s the worst vice president,’ which is true,” Trump said.
“The press is very corrupt — you know that — they gave her a transformation like Houdini. That was a Houdini, like that was a magic trick. But don’t worry, she’s going to fall,” Trump said, “because it’s not about him or her. It’s about the policies that are the same.”
Trump referred to Harris as “crazy Kamala” and “Border Czar Harris” during his rally remarks and played footage of her changing her position on fracking for natural gas — a locally important issue — while riffing that “Harris and Biden sit in the White House and try and figure out who’s dumber.”
‘They Thought I Changed’
Trump said commentators were wrong to believe he was changed by the July 13 assassination attempt in which his ear was grazed by a bullet near Pittsburgh.
“When I got hit, everybody thought I was going to be a nice guy. And they thought I changed,” Trump said at the evening rally.
“They all said Trump is going to be a nice man now he came close to death, and I really agreed with that for about eight hours or so.”
Trump said he reconsidered his momentary new outlook when he reflected on the four criminal cases brought against him.
“And then I realized they were trying to put me in prison for doing absolutely nothing wrong,” Trump told his supporters.
“They went to judges who are crooked judges. They went to judges who were fake. They had prosecutors who were Democrat, radical-lefts, and always in areas where it’s like 3% Republican or less.”
Trump added: “And I said, ‘You know, these are bad people.’ So I was nicer, [for] about what would you say… three, four, five hours? And then I said, ‘These are bad people. We have to win this battle.'”
The assassination attempt, which briefly eclipsed all other news stories, was itself knocked off the front page by Biden’s decision eight days later to retire and hand off the Democratic nomination to Harris.
“I do think Biden would have been easier for Trump to beat,” a rally attendee who gave her name as Maureen told The Post.
“I think it’s going to be really close with Kamala.”
‘Absolutely Disgusting’
Trump’s remarks about Harris’ race sparked backlash from the White House and outrage among black journalists in the room.
Attendees told The Post they found Trump’s remarks “absolutely disgusting.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said his remarks were “repulsive.”
“It’s insulting and no one has any right to tell someone who they are and how they identify,” she told reporters minutes after Trump made the remarks.
With less than 100 days to go before the election, Trump has been trying to expand its reach to voters who would not usually vote Republican — with some polls showing growing support among black and Latino voters, whom he courted with a large South Bronx rally in May.
Creating an inclusive GOP was a key theme at the Republican National Convention earlier this month.
Politicians have stumbled badly when describing the racial identities of other people — with Biden infamously saying to a radio host in 2020 that African-Americans “ain’t black” if they support Trump.
Trump claimed at the black journalist conference that he had been the “best president for the black population since Abraham Lincoln” and spoke at length about record illegal immigration under Biden and Harris — saying that those migrants would take “black jobs.”
“Millions and millions of people that are happening to take black jobs,” Trump said, prompting outcry from the audience and one of the panelists to say, “what exactly is a black job?”
“A black job is anybody that has a job,” Trump responded to more ruckus from the audience.
Trump’s presence Tuesday was met with pushback from locals and from within the NABJ. Left-wing protesters organized a march outside the downtown Hilton location and the co-chair of the NABJ convention, Karen Attiah, stepped down from her role, arguing Trump was being “platformed” at the event.
But Trump’s supporters applauded him for showing up to speak to a crowd that wouldn’t necessarily vote for him.
“Trump needs to talk to every constituency that’s out there. Could he nuance his message a bit more to his audience? Yes! Is he what you see is what you get? Absolutely!” GOP strategist Dave Wilson told The Post.
“Trump doesn’t take any vote for granted and was smart to defend his record uplifting not only the Black community — but all minorities,” another GOP operative said.
Social media was ignited with users blasting Trump for his comments.
Attiah repeatedly posted about the NABJ making a mistake about inviting Trump, despite the organization inviting presidential candidates for decades.
“I am so angry right now. N.A.B.J., this was a colossal mistake,” Attiah wrote on X.
Trump’s campaign said they expected the panel to focus on the “most pressing issues” for the black community and argued that the former president “accomplished more for black Americans than any other president in recent history by implementing America First policies on the economy, immigration, energy, law and order, and foreign policy.”
The panel moderators included ABC News senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott, anchor of The Faulkner Focus on FOX News Harris Faulkner and Semafor politics reporter Kadia Goba.
Scott kicked off the panel by questioning Trump over his use of controversial rhetoric in the past towards the black community – to which the GOP nominee responded that the question was “horrible” and that he’s “never been asked a question in such a horrible manner.”
The panelists also asked Trump about the criticism Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) has received about his remarks about childless women. The former president defended his running mate as being “family orientated” but not judging those without children.
But Trump dodged on whether he thought Vance would be ready to serve on day one in office, saying voters should vote Trump if they want the former president to win.
Trump senior adviser Lynne Patton responded to the outcry in a statement saying the Republican is running for “all” of the country, and that’s why he decided to attend the conference.
“Today’s biased and rude treatment from certain hostile members of the media will backfire massively. You would think that the media would have learned something from their repeat episodes of fake outrage ever since President Trump first came down the escalator in 2015, but some just refuse to ‘get it.’ This will be their undoing in 2024,” Patton said.
Trump said the panelists’ questions were “rude and nasty” but said he “crushed it.”
Harris did not accept an invitation to speak at the convention, but her team is speaking to the NABJ about future options.
“Black voters see Donald Trump’s lies and empty pandering for what they are – and they will hold him accountable at the polls this November,” Harris campaign Black Media Director Jasmine Harris said in a statement.
