WASHINGTON: Former President Donald Trump has ignited controversy with his remarks questioning Vice President Kamala Harris’s racial identity, suggesting she has recently shifted from emphasizing her Indian heritage to identifying as Black. His statements, made at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago, have elicited strong condemnation from Harris and others who view the comments as racially charged and divisive.

During his speech, Trump, 78, made an erroneous assertion about Harris’s public identity. He claimed that she had primarily highlighted her Asian-American roots until a recent change in her self-identification. “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, and now she wants to be known as Black,” Trump stated. He further questioned, “So I don’t know – Is she Indian? Or is she Black?”

These comments have drawn significant backlash, with critics accusing Trump of perpetuating racial stereotypes and engaging in disrespectful discourse. At an event in Houston on Wednesday, Harris responded to Trump’s remarks, denouncing them as part of a broader pattern of divisive rhetoric. “This afternoon, Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, and it was the same old show,” Harris said. “The divisiveness and the disrespect, and let me just say, the American people deserve better.”

Trump’s comments have been met with widespread criticism from various quarters, highlighting the ongoing sensitivity and importance of discussions surrounding racial identity and representation in American politics.