Trump Escalates Race Attacks on Harris, Worrying Some Republicans

Donald J. Trump continued to raise false and incendiary questions about Vice President Kamala Harris’s racial identity for a second day on Thursday, as Republicans watched the former president drive his campaign into a divisive and potentially damaging direction.

A day after telling an audience of Black journalists in Chicago that Ms. Harris had “all of a sudden” decided to become “a Black person,” Mr. Trump posted a photo on his social media site of Ms. Harris dressed in a sari with a caption stating: “Your warmth, friendship, and love of your Indian Heritage are very much appreciated.”

Mr. Trump also amplified posts from Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist, who had posted copies of Ms. Harris’s birth certificate and had spread false accusations that Ms. Harris has lied about her race.

Ms. Harris, whose father is from Jamaica, and whose mother was Indian American, has long identified with both her Black and South Asian heritage.

An alumna of a historically Black institution, Howard University, she responded to Mr. Trump’s comments during her speech at a convention of Black sororities on Wednesday, saying, “The American people deserve better.”

Whether Mr. Trump’s initial remarks on Wednesday were planned or not, the Trump team is clearly intensifying this line of attack.

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{snip} At a rally in Harrisburg, Pa. on Wednesday night, his campaign put headlines noting her Indian American background on the big screens above the crowd.

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As Mr. Trump’s comments ricocheted around the political world, politicians from both parties seemed to be trying to determine whether such an attack would be effective in 2024, amid a rapidly diversifying electorate. More than 12 percent of Americans identify as multiracial.

Democrats denounced him as racist.

“We need to fiercely call out this type of bigotry and ignorance,” Representative Maxwell Alejandro Frost of Florida wrote on X, responding to Mr. Trump’s post on Thursday of Ms. Harris in Indian garb. “During my primary race, some folks said similar things about me. That I wasn’t actually Black cause my mom is Cuban. Or that I’m not actually Latino because I’m Black.”

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Others sought to refashion and reframe Mr. Trump’s baseless allegation, seeking safe ground through a more sanitized version.

Those included Senator JD Vance, Mr. Trump’s running mate, who said at a rally on Wednesday that Mr. Trump had attended the Black journalists’ conference “because he’s running to be president for all Americans.” He attempted to recast Mr. Trump’s questions about Ms. Harris’s race as questions about her character.

“Kamala Harris is a phony who caters to whatever audience is in front of her,” Mr. Vance said.

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Still, some Democrats privately said that the whole episode reminded them uncomfortably of 2016. Mr. Trump stoked controversy after controversy — dominating repeated news cycles — all summer that year before eventually defeating Hillary Clinton to win the White House.

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