Trump escalates incendiary racial attacks on Harris

Republicans hold their tongues in public, but some view attack as unneeded and risky

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Donald Trump continued to raise false and incendiary questions about US Vice-President Kamala Harris' racial identity on Aug 1, 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", 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."

Trump also amplified posts from right-wing activist Laura Loomer, who had posted copies of Ms Harris' 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 Trump's comments during her speech at a convention of black sororities on July 31, saying: "The American people deserve better."

Whether Trump's initial remarks on July 31 were planned or not, the Trump team is clearly intensifying this line of attack.

"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 told the audience of black journalists. "So, I don't know: Is she Indian, or is she black?"

For a Republican Party that has acclimatised itself to a decade of combustible comments from Trump, the reaction to his latest remarks had the feeling of a familiar routine: Republicans mostly rolled their eyes in private and held their tongues in public.