Trump’s new (and old) strategy against Kamala Harris: race

At the close of the Republican Party convention where he was crowned the presidential candidate, Donald Trump, fresh from an attack, was trying to display moderation and poise. But that was last month, when he had an electoral tailwind and the polls were giving him an ever-growing lead over his Democratic rival, Joe Biden. After the president’s decision not to run for re-election, and with Vice President Kamala Harris gaining ground in this eventful election campaign, the Republican has resorted to one of his favorite strategies: personal and racial insults.

His remarks at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago on Wednesday sparked controversy. Right from the start of his speech on a panel with three Black journalists, he launched into a personal attack on his rival. “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black. Now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know — is she Indian or is she Black?” he insisted about the vice president, whose father is Jamaican and whose mother is Indian. Harris describes herself as Black in her autobiography and she graduated from Howard University, originally created for African-American students. Trump insinuated that she had only reached the position she now occupies because of her skin color, not because of her merits.

It was not the only comment that drew gasps of astonishment. Asked about the economy, and his earlier remarks that “millions of immigrants” come to the United States to “take away jobs from Black people,” he clarified that by this he meant all kinds of jobs.

Without mentioning him, Harris responded hours later at a convention of Sigma Gamma Rho, a Black women’s sorority: “The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us — they are an essential source of our strength.” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre demanded “respect” for the vice president.

The president’s remarks were reminiscent of his comments against President Barack Obama in 2011, before he became a political candidate, questioning whether he was actually born in the United States. They also caused unrest even within his own party. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, one of the few Republican lawmakers who has not declared her support for Trump, considered the former president’s comments “very unfortunate.”

The criticism has not deterred him. The Republican presidential candidate posted a photo of Harris wearing an Indian sari on his social media accounts on Thursday, implying again that the vice president is not Black, but Indian.

One in 10 Americans, or 33.8 million, say they identify with at least two races, according to the latest U.S. census from 2020. A decade earlier, that number was much lower, at nine million people. Former Trump spokeswoman Alyssa Farah Griffin has said that “most Americans, though apparently not Trump, understand the concept of being biracial, and talking about someone’s racial identity that way is offensive.”

Trump’s remarks to Black journalists came as the former president is trying to court African-American voters, who traditionally form the Democratic electoral base, but who during Joe Biden’s years in office had begun to move closer to the Republicans. The former president is scheduled to participate in a rally in Atlanta, where Harris held her largest rally there on Tuesday. Her audience was overwhelmingly African-American.

A new round of polls in the battleground states that will decide the outcome of the election, conducted by the conservative agency Public Opinion Strategies, showed on Thursday that Harris is ahead of Trump in Pennsylvania by 48% to 45% and in Wisconsin, by 48% to 46%. In Arizona and Nevada, the roles are reversed, with the Republican leading 48% and 46%, respectively, while the vice president has 43% and 45%. In Michigan, the two are tied at 45%.

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