Trump tells NABJ they ‘invited me under false pretenses’
While attending the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago, former President Trump pushed back against a question about DEI, saying Vice President Kamala Harris was only promoting one side of her roots.
When asked by a reporter about Harris’ race, President Trump told the audience on Wednesday that Harris, who has long identified as Indian, has “gone black.”
While speaking at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) on Wednesday afternoon, President Trump was asked by ABC News reporter Rachel Scott whether he agreed with Republican lawmakers who have described Harris as a “DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion)” hire.
Former President Trump (left) attends a rally at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on July 20, 2024. Vice President Harris (right) addresses the NCAA championship team on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC. (Left: Bill Pagliano/Getty Images, Right: Ting Sheng/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I’ve known her for a long time. Not directly, but indirectly… she’s always been Indian and she’s just promoted her Indian heritage,” Trump said. “I only found out she was black a few years ago, when I happened to be black. And now she wants to be known as black. So I don’t know if she’s Indian or black.”
The vice president’s mother was born in India and his father is a black man from Jamaica.
Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler released a statement about Trump’s comments shortly after the event.
“The hostility that Donald Trump displayed on stage today is the same hostility he has displayed throughout his life, throughout his time in office and throughout his presidential campaign as he sought to regain power and impose his harmful Project 2025 policies on the American people,” Tyler said. “Trump has lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists, just as he has done throughout his presidency, while he has let down Black families and left our entire country struggling to get out of the hole he put us in. Now that Donald Trump has proven he cannot unite America, he is trying to divide us.”
“Today’s outrage is just a glimpse of the confusion and division that has characterized Trump’s MAGA rallies throughout this campaign,” Tyler added. “And it’s exactly what the American people will see from the other side of the debate stage as VP Harris lays out her vision of opportunity and freedom for all Americans. All Donald Trump needs to do is stop maneuvering and actually show up to the debate on September 10th.”
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre also responded to Trump’s comments, calling his comments “insulting” and adding that “no one has the right to tell other people’s identities.”
“How they identify is not anybody’s right. It’s their own decision,” Jean-Pierre said. “Only she can talk about her experience. Only she can talk about what it’s like. Only she can do that. I think it’s insulting to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re a former leader, a former president. It’s insulting.”
“She’s the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris,” she added. “We need to pay tribute to her name here.”
“The questions were rude, mean and often took the form of statements, but we beat them!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post after the NABJ event.
