Donald Trump is ‘upset and upset’ that Vice President Kamala Harris has stolen his campaign spotlight and aides fear her incendiary comments about his race will hurt his election chances, sources say.
Harris’s long-awaited nomination has upended the presidential race and prompted a major shift in polls compared to when President Joe Biden was still the Democratic nominee, and Trump held a significant lead in key states.
Trump’s advisers gasped when he told them: National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago that He “didn’t know” Harris was black and thought she was “Indian all the way,” sources close to the case said. The Wall Street Journal.
“A strategy of racism, I don’t think, is healthy for the Republican Party, for America in its civic engagements, nor do I think it’s helpful to the Trump campaign,” Rick Tyler, a Republican Party strategist who was a spokesman for Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign, told The Journal.
People close to the former president said he was frustrated by the positive attention and massive amounts of money Harris had generated.
People close to Trump said the former president is frustrated by all the attention his new opponent has received.
Harris is the first Black, female and South Asian vice president, but Trump suggested her embrace of Black culture was disingenuous
Harris’ presidential campaign announced it raised $81 million in its first 24 hours after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed the vice president.
The Trump campaign had planned to paint the vice president as an opportunist and inconsistent in his policies.
But the mercurial former president dramatically changed course by bringing his new rival’s racial identity into the debate on Wednesday.
People close to Trump said the president thought Harris was being inauthentic about her race.
Harris is the first Black, female and South Asian vice president, but Trump suggested at the Chicago conference that her embrace of Black culture was disingenuous.
He said: ‘She always had Indian heritage and she was just promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was black until a few years ago when she became black, and now she wants to be known as black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she black?’
Attendees gasped when Trump said he “didn’t know” Harris was black and thought she was “Indian all the way” at the NABJ conference in Chicago.
“And you know what, I respect either of them, but she obviously doesn’t. Because she was Indian through and through and all of a sudden she turned around and became a black person. I think someone should look into that.”
Trump then doubled down on Truth Social by saying, “Crazy Kamala is saying she is Indian, not black. This is a huge problem. A complete farce. She uses everyone, including their racial identity!”
The Trump campaign has been trying to court Black voters, but political strategists fear he will alienate them if he continues to attack Harris over her identity.
Scott Jennings gave a blunt assessment on CNN NewsNight when anchor Abby Phillip pressed him on the strategy behind Trump claiming the vice president simply “went black” a few years ago.
“He shit the bed today,” said the political strategist and pundit, before offering an applicable metaphor. “The only question is whether he’ll roll around in it or get up and change the sheets.”