Donald Trump intends to focus his 2024 reelection campaign on Kamala Harris’ race, whether Republicans want it or not

NEW YORK — Donald Trump has achieved tremendous success since he first stepped onto the presidential stage by stoking racial animosity.

Democrats expressed fresh outrage this week over the former president’s mocking and false accusation that Vice President Kamala Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian descent, only recently “turned black” for political gain. Some Republicans — even from Trump’s own campaign — seemed to distance themselves from the comment.

But Trump’s rhetoric this week and his record on race since entering politics nearly a decade ago suggest that racial attacks could become the Republican Party’s central talking point in the three-month race to Election Day — whether his allies want them to or not.

” READ MORE: Donald Trump Questions Kamala Harris’ Racial Identity and Returns to Pennsylvania for First Time Since Assassination

A Trump adviser, who was granted anonymity Thursday to discuss domestic strategy, said the campaign doesn’t need to focus on “identity politics” because the argument against Harris is that she’s “so liberal it’s dangerous.” The adviser pointed to Harris’ record on the southern border, crime, the economy and foreign policy.

In a sign that Trump may not be coordinating his message with his team, the Republican presidential candidate doubled down that same day, attacking Harris’ racial identity. He posted a photo on social media of Harris in traditional Indian garb in a family photo.

Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican who endorsed Trump, was one of several lawmakers on Capitol Hill who said Thursday that rhetoric around race and identity is “not helpful to anyone” this election cycle.

“The color of people’s skin doesn’t matter at all,” Lummis said in an interview.

” READ MORE: Philadelphia Democrats Speak Out on Donald Trump’s Racist Comments About Kamala Harris: ‘Consistent with His Entire Past’

Trump Turns to Old Tactics Against Harris

Less than two weeks after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed Harris, Trump had to shift his campaign focus from an 81-year-old white man showing signs of decline to a 59-year-old black woman who attracting much larger crowds AND New enthusiasm among Democratic donors.

Trump headed to the National Association of Black Journalists convention on Wednesday. In a speech broadcast live on cable television and widely shared online, he falsely suggested that Harris had misled voters about her race.

“I didn’t know she was black until a few years ago when she became black, and now she wants to be known as black. So I don’t know if she’s Indian or black?” Trump said Wednesday.

Hours later, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump’s team flashed vintage news headlines on a huge screen in the arena describing Harris as “the first Indian-American female senator.” And Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s vice presidential nominee, told reporters traveling with him that Harris was a “chameleon” who changed identities when it suited him.

Harris attended Howard University, a historically black college, where she was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Throughout her career, she has spoken frequently about being black and Indian American.

Trump’s team has argued that his message on race is part of a broader argument that could appeal to some black voters, though very few allies defended his specific rhetoric this week.

“Our historic successes with black voters are shaped by President Trump’s record compared to Kamala’s,” said Lynne Patton, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, pointing to “the cost of living, securing the border, deporting illegal immigrants from Kamala, making neighborhoods safe again and preventing men from playing women’s sports.”

Veteran GOP pollster Frank Luntz said he explored racial politics during a Wednesday focus group with undecided voters almost immediately after Trump’s interview, finding that Harris may be vulnerable to gender criticism but that racial attacks could hurt Trump among voters who matter most this fall.

Luntz said much has changed since Trump rose to prominence by questioning the citizenship of Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president.

“Trump clearly thinks he can criticize her for how she handles her race. Well, nobody listens to that criticism. It just doesn’t matter,” Luntz said. “If it’s racially motivated, he’ll retaliate.”

Eugene Craig, a former vice chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, said Trump “got what he wanted” at the NABJ convention, but the substance of his arguments may have been more offensive than appealing.

“One thing black people will never tolerate is disrespect for black people, and that includes black Republicans,” said Craig, who is black and worked as a staffer for conservative commentator Dan Bongino’s 2012 Senate campaign. He now supports Harris.

Trump has a long history of racist attacks

Since he began his presidential career nearly a decade ago, Trump has frequently used race to attack his opponents.

Trump was probably the most renowned member the so-called “birther” movement questioning Obama’s birthplace. He began his primary campaign by casting Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and drug dealers, and later questioned whether a Mexican-American federal judge it would be fair to him.

While in the White House, Trump defended the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, and suggested that the United States stop accepting immigrants from “shitty” countries including Haiti and parts of Africa. In August 2020, he suggested that Harris, who was born in California, might not meet the Constitution’s qualifications to serve as vice president.

And just two weeks after formally entering the 2024 campaign, I had dinner with infamous white supremacist Nick Fuentes at his Mar-a-Lago residence.

Trump won in 2016 but lost reelection to Biden in 2020 by narrow margins in several swing states. He swept the 2024 Republican primary despite facing multiple criminal charges.

Some of Trump’s critics feared that his race strategy would still resonate with a significant portion of the electorate. Voters will decide in November whether to send a black woman to the Oval Office for the first time in the country’s nearly 250-year history.

“I hope Trump’s attacks on Harris are just his ineffective hand-waving. But combine Trump’s brazenness, his willingness to lie, his demagogic talent, and the race issue — and a certain amount of liberal smugness that Trump is just plain stupid — and I’m concerned,” Bill Kristol, a leading conservative anti-Trump voice, wrote on social media Thursday.

Harris’ campaign believes Trump has little chance of winning

A Harris aide described the moment as an opportunity to remind voters of the chaos and division Trump is stirring. But the aide, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy, said it would be a mistake for Democrats to engage in Trump’s attacks on race at the expense of a broader campaign focus on key policies.

A Harris aide said Harris’ team believes that unless the campaign dissipates, Trump will have little political advantage in continuing to attack Harris’ racial identity.

Harris told a meeting of the Historically Black Student Association on Wednesday that Trump’s attack was “the same thing it’s always been: division and disrespect.”

But in practice, in at least one swing state, there are signs that Trump’s approach might resonate — at least among white male supporters of the former president.

Jim Abel, a 65-year-old retiree who attended Vance’s rally in Arizona on Wednesday, said he agreed with Trump’s statement that he was focusing on Harris’ racial identity.

“She’s not black,” Abel said. “I’ve seen her parents. I have pictures of her and her family, and she’s not black. She’s looking for black votes.”

However, several influential members of the Republican Party disagreed with this opinion.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro posted a photo of a road sign on X with two clues. One led to “Attack Kamala’s Record, Lies, and Radicalism,” and the other to “Is She Really Black?”

“I don’t know guys, I just think winning the 2024 election might be more important than having this stupid and pointless conversation,” Shapiro wrote.