I didn’t know she was black until several years ago when she turned black,” Trump told a panel of interviewers at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago.
Donald Trump questioned whether Democrat Kamala Harris is really black or using race as political convenience in an interview Wednesday that sparked shockwaves in the 2024 presidential race.
Trump told a panel of interviewers at the National Association of Blacks (NABJs), “She’s always been of Indian heritage, and she’s just been promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was black, years ago when she was black. Press conference in Chicago, US.
Additionally, he said, “And now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or Black?” Now, she wants to be known as black. I don’t know, is she Indian or black?” he said of Harris, the first black, female, and South Asian vice president in U.S. history.
“I respect either one but she doesn’t show it, because Kamala was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she took a turn, and suddenly she became black.”
President Joe Biden’s White House quickly responded to Trump’s comments, calling them “insulting”.
White House press secretary Karen Jean-Pierre, the first black woman to hold the position, told reporters that “nobody has a right to say who they are, how they identify.”