For Donald Trump, discriminatory statements and the spread of conspiracy theories are not uncommon. Now he is attacking his likely opponent in the US election, Kamala Harris.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has sharply attacked his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris with regard to her origins and skin color. Harris had long campaigned exclusively on the basis of her Indian ancestry and then suddenly became black, Trump claimed during an appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago. There, the Republican was generally aggressive and engaged in a tough exchange of blows with the moderators.
“She was always of Indian descent and only advertised her Indian descent,” Trump said of Harris. “I didn’t know she was black until she suddenly became black a few years ago. And now she wants to be known as black.” The former US president added: “So I don’t know: is she Indian or is she black?” He respects both, but Harris herself apparently doesn’t, given her “about-face.” “I think someone should look into that.”
Harris is the first woman, the first black woman and the first Asian American to be sworn in as US Vice President. She was born in Oakland, California. Her father immigrated to the US from Jamaica to study economics. Her mother – a cancer researcher and civil rights activist – came from India. Harris wants to run against Trump in the presidential election in November.
White House calls Donald Trump’s comments “insulting” and “repulsive”
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Harris campaign responded to Trump’s comments. The hostility that Trump showed on stage was “the same hostility that he has shown throughout his life, during his time in office and during his campaign for president.” Chaos and division would characterize Trump’s entire campaign.
The White House reacted angrily to the statements. Spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre called the remarks “insulting” and “repulsive.” Jean-Pierre – herself the first black woman to hold the post of spokesperson in the White House – emphasized: “No one has the right to tell someone who they are, how they identify.”
Trump had already given space to racist conspiracy theories about Harris in 2020, before she took office. The theories questioned whether she should even be allowed to become vice president because her parents were not yet US citizens when she was born.
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Years before, Trump had already been involved in conspiracy theories that had questioned former President Barack Obama’s birthplace and thus his qualifications for the highest office in the state. At the time, Trump was one of the most prominent proponents of the theory that Obama was born in Kenya. Obama, the first black president of the United States, was born in the US state of Hawaii.
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