Former President Donald Trump said during a speech on Friday that he doesn’t care if he mispronounces the name of his general election opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
After mispronouncing her name on a number of occasions, Trump is facing claims that he’s doing it on purpose.
Trump appeared on Friday at the Turning Point USA Believers Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, saying that there are seven ways of saying Harris’s name.
“By the way, there are numerous ways of saying her name, they were explaining to me, ‘you can say Kamala, you can say Kamala’, I said, ‘don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter what I say. I couldn’t care less if I mispronounce it’,” Trump said on Friday. “Some people think I mispronounce it on purpose, but actually, I’ve heard it said about seven different ways.”
In response, the Harris campaign shared a clip of Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff on Saturday, in which he told Trump, “I know you have so much trouble pronouncing her name. But here’s the good news. After the election, you can just call her Madam President.”
Kamala is a common Tamil name, and Harris’ mother came from Tamil Nadu, India. The clip of Trump mispronouncing the vice president’s name was shared on X, with users slamming the former president for his mispronouncation.
“Spoken like a man who isn’t burdened by a scintilla of class, grace or dignity,” Greg Cantwell said.
Another account holder said it was “same old schtick. He hasn’t moved on from 2016 or 2020.”
“It’s like Trump and JD Vance are trying their hardest to turn off swing voters,” Tonya Bailey added.
“No cultural bias here. Giving this man a stage and a microphone is a crime against humanity,” user @DrPacoHinton said.
“The racists love pretending not to know how to pronounce the name of a strong woman who’s held public office for 20 years,” Landon Hall added.
During his speech, Trump slammed Harris on several issues including criminal justice and immigration.
“She was a bum three weeks ago. She was a bum. A failed vice president in a failed administration, with millions of people crossing, and she was the border czar,” Trump said on Friday.
The White House has rejected such claims, noting that Harris worked with Central American countries to address the root causes of immigration, not find a resolution to the issues at the southern border.
A Harris spokesperson said in a statement after the speech that “Trump couldn’t pronounce words” and that he “sounded like someone you wouldn’t want to sit near at a restaurant — let alone be President of the United States,” according to NBC.
