CHICAGO — Former President Donald Trump told a black journalist conference Wednesday he “didn’t know” Vice President Kamala Harris was “black” until recently Wednesday — before trashing her as “fake, fake, fake” later at a rally in Pennsylvania.
The remark about Harris’ racial identity came as Trump, 78, sought to court minority voters by addressing the National Association for Black Journalists convention in Chicago.
“I’ve known her a long time indirectly — not directly very much — and she was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was black — until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black,” Trump said.
“And now she wants to be known as black, so I don’t know is she Indian or is she black … but you know what, I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t.”
Trump added: “She became a black person and I think somebody should look into that.”
The vice president’s father is black and from Jamaica and her mother was born in India.
Harris graduated from the historically black Howard University in 1986 and was a member of a black sorority.
“Everything about Kamala Harris rollout is phony and it’s fake,” Trump said at an evening rally in Harrisburg — complaining about the size of the vice president’s 10,000-person rally in Atlanta Tuesday night.
Unlike Harris, who had rapper Megan Thee Stallion as her opening act, Trump said “we didn’t need a star” or “some entertainer to fill it up.”
Trump claimed Harris was in the process of a “personality makeover.”
“Don’t forget, four weeks ago, she was like considered the worst, not smart, terrible — the worst vice president in history,” Trump said. “All of a sudden, she’s the new Margaret Thatcher.”Trump’s earlier remarks about Harris’ race immediately sparked backlash from the White House.
“As a person of color, as a black woman…. what he just said… is repulsive, it’s insulting and no one has any right to tell someone who they are and how they identify,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who also served as Harris’ 2020 campaign chief of staff.
With less than 100 days to go before the general election, the Trump team has been trying to expand its reach to voters who would not usually vote Republican. Creating an inclusive GOP was a key theme at the Republican National Convention earlier this month, and the campaign has pointed to polls showing Trump having expanded numbers of minority voters behind him.
The Chicago event was an attempt at reaching black media with a message of how another Trump presidency could benefit the country.
Trump, 78, said he had been the “best president for the black population since Abraham Lincoln” and spoke at length about Harris’ administration letting in a record number of illegal immigrants during her term with President Biden – noting that the migrants would take over “black jobs.”
“Millions and millions of people that are happening to take black jobs,” Trump said, prompting outcry from the audience and one of the panelists to say, “what exactly is a black job?”
“A black job is anybody that has a job,” Trump responded.
His presence Tuesday was met with pushback from locals and from within the NABJ. Left-wing protesters organized a march outside the downtown Hilton location and the co-chair of the NABJ convention, Karen Attiah, stepped down from her role, arguing Trump was being “platformed” by being interviewed at the event.
But Trump’s supporters applauded him for showing up to speak to a crowd that wouldn’t necessarily vote for him.
“Trump needs to talk to every constituency that’s out there. Could he nuance his message a bit more to his audience? Yes! Is he what you see is what you get? Absolutely!” GOP strategist Dave Wilson told The Post.
“Trump doesn’t take any vote for granted and was smart to defend his record uplifting not only the Black community — but all minorities,” another GOP operative said.
But the attendees The Post spoke to afterwards said they found Trump’s remarks “absolutely disgusting” and that they especially didn’t like his words about Harris not being black.
The room was tense after Trump departed and The Post overheard discussions about whether the former president should have been invited to speak.
Social media was ignited with users blasting Trump for his comments.
Attiah repeatedly posted about the NABJ making a mistake about inviting Trump, despite the organization inviting presidential candidates for decades.
“I am so angry right now. N.A.B.J., this was a colossal mistake,” Attiah wrote on X.
Trump’s campaign said they expected the panel to focus on the “most pressing issues” for the black community and argued that the former president “accomplished more for black Americans than any other president in recent history by implementing America First policies on the economy, immigration, energy, law and order, and foreign policy.”
The panel moderators included ABC News senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott, anchor of The Faulkner Focus on FOX News Harris Faulkner and Semafor politics reporter Kadia Goba.
Scott kicked off the panel by questioning Trump over his use of controversial rhetoric in the past towards the black community – to which the GOP nominee responded that the question was “horrible” and that he’s “never been asked a question in such a horrible manner.”
The tech issues at the event and the animosity of Scott’s questions towards Trump remained a theme throughout the panel, with the former president expressing frustration with not being able to hear the questions.
The panelists also asked Trump about the criticism Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) has received about his remarks about childless women.
The former president defended his running mate as being “family orientated” but not judging those without children.
But Trump dodged on whether he thought Vance would be ready to serve on day one in office, saying voters should vote Trump if they want the former president to win.
Trump senior adviser Lynne Patton responded to the outcry in a statement saying the Republican is running for “all” of the country, and that’s why he decided to attend the conference.
“Today’s biased and rude treatment from certain hostile members of the media will backfire massively. You would think that the media would have learned something from their repeat episodes of fake outrage ever since President Trump first came down the escalator in 2015, but some just refuse to ‘get it.’ This will be their undoing in 2024,” Patton said.
Trump said the panelists’ questions were “rude and nasty” but said he “crushed it.”
Harris, 59, did not accept an invitation to speak at the convention, but her team is speaking to the NABJ about future options.
Her team issued an attack response to Trump speaking to black voters and stressed that Democratic leaders at the convention will make the case for the Biden-Harris administration.
“Ahead of Donald Trump’s conversation at NABJ today – let’s remember exactly who this man is. Not only does Donald Trump have a history of demeaning NABJ members and honorees who remain pillars of the Black press, he also has a history of attacking the media and working against the vital role the press play in our democracy,” Harris campaign Black Media Director Jasmine Harris said in a statement.
“We know Donald Trump is going to lie about his record and the real harm he’s caused Black communities at NABJ – and he must be called out,” the statement added, saying Trump will lie about unemployment rates, “his failed response to the pandemic” and “skyrocketing crime.”