Trump is receiving criticism from his own ranks for this question

Donald Trump is once again causing outrage with racist statements – this time even within his own party.

In the USA, comments by Donald Trump about Kamala Harris’ origins and skin color are causing a stir. During a campaign appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago, the Republican presidential candidate claimed that Harris had long campaigned exclusively on the basis of her Indian ancestry and then suddenly turned black.

“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.

During an appearance before students in Houston, Texas, the Democrat countered the comments of her political opponent: “We all remember how the four years under Trump went. But today we got a little refresher,” said Harris. She made it clear that the audience was well informed about Trump’s recent statements. “This afternoon it was the same old show. The divisiveness and the disrespect.” Harris further emphasized: “The American people deserve better. The people of America deserve someone at the top who tells the truth. Someone who does not react to facts with anger and hostility.”

The White House reacted angrily to Trump’s statements. Spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre called the comments “insulting” and “repulsive.” Jean-Pierre – herself the first black woman to hold the White House spokesperson’s post – emphasized: “No one has the right to tell someone who they are, how they identify.”

Criticism of Trump’s statements about Harris’ origins also came from within his own ranks. A leading Republican in the Senate, John Thune, made his position clear: Trump’s campaign should focus on political issues and not on Kamala Harris’ ethnicity. “The election campaign is, must and should be about the content, and there is plenty to talk about. I just think that the focus has to be on that. That’s how we will win in November,” Thune told US reporters on Wednesday.

Leading Republicans in Congress, including Speaker Mike Johnson, warned the Trump team against using the policy of diversity, equality and inclusion to attack Harris, reports the US media outlet “The Hill”.

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.

Years before, Trump had also 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.