Former President Trump made baseless assertions about Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity during a combative interview at a Black journalism conference Wednesday, while polls showed his opponent had notched significant gains in battleground states.

Trump’s question-and-answer session with three reporters at the annual convention of the National Assn. of Black Journalists grew heated from the start, when Rachel Scott, senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, rattled off a series of Trump’s inflammatory comments — including that former President Obama was not born in the U.S. — and asked why Black voters should trust him.

He responded by lambasting Scott for a “disgraceful” start, adding, “I came here in good spirit. I love the Black population of this country.”

When Scott asked him about other Republican politicians’ comments that Harris was a “DEI hire,” Trump asked for her definition of DEI. He challenged her response that the acronym means “diversity, equity and inclusion,” before saying of Harris, “She was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden she made a turn, she became a Black person.”

Harris, a Black and Asian American woman of Jamaican and Indian descent, was invited to speak at the convention but her campaign declined due to a scheduling conflict, according to NABJ. The association said it was planning a separate conversation with the vice president in September.

“Today’s tirade is simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies this entire campaign,” Harris campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler said Wednesday.

When pressed by the ABC reporter to say why Black voters should trust him, Trump said he had already answered the question and added: “I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln.”

Throughout the panel, Trump complained that the interview started more than an hour late and that the sound system was not working properly. In a turn from his typically friendly rally crowds, Trump faced a roomful of Black journalists, who at turns laughed, gasped or jeered at his responses. One attendee walked out as he questioned Harris’s racial identify and another screamed, “Sir, have you no shame?”

The audience booed as he exited the stage.

“You have to really take your hat off to former President Trump for accepting the invitation to come but, outside of that, it was just a real train wreck,” said Charles Ward, a journalism professor at Morehouse College who attended the session. “Members really thought it would’ve been an opportunity to articulate something other than what we’ve heard on the campaign trail, and that was the same thing today — even though there were questions asked directly of him about his intentions with the Black community and we never got a full answer on that.“

Journalist Roland Martin listens as former President Trump speaks in Chicago.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

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Some of Trump’s supporters saw his performance Wednesday as proof of his tenacity in the face of a hostile crowd.

“President Trump flew to Chicago, took tough question after tough question from the press, and crushed it. Kamala didn’t have the guts to show up,” wrote Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley on social media.

Others watching the interview were put off by Trump’s meandering and at-times abrasive responses.

Hope Moses, 22, a Milwaukee native and graduate student at Northwestern University, said it was important for her to be in the room to bear witness as a student reporter and a young Black voter. Moses said she felt Trump had gone “a little bit off track.” It disturbed her to hear the former president acknowledge he did not know the details of the shooting of Sonya Massey, an unarmed Black woman shot to death earlier this month by an Illinois sheriff’s deputy.

“I don’t even remember him offering his sympathies and really connecting with the audience and understanding that each of us could’ve been her.” Moses said. “Most people in the audience can agree that this was entertaining but wasn’t necessarily informative.”

Trump’s appearance elicited controversy before he even arrived, as many journalists condemned the organization’s decision to invite the former president. Karen Attiah, a columnist and global opinions editor with the Washington Post, announced Tuesday she was stepping down as co-chair of the convention.

“While my decision was influenced by a variety of factors, I was not involved or consulted with in any way with the decision to platform Trump in such a format,” Attiah said in a social media post.

Immediately following the interview, Trump posted on his Truth Social account: “ABC FAKE NEWS, ONE OF THE WORST IN AMERICA!”

“Today’s biased and rude treatment from certain hostile members of the media will backfire massively,” Trump senior advisor Lynne Patton said in a statement. “You would think that the media would have learned something from their repeat episodes of fake outrage ever since President Trump first came down the escalator in 2015, but some just refuse to ‘get it.’ This will be their undoing in 2024.”

The Chicago event came as Harris continues to ride the wave of momentum that has propelled her for the past 10 days since President Biden stepped aside as the leading Democratic candidate for president. A groundswell of groups quickly coalesced to organize almost nightly online calls to recruit volunteers and raise millions of dollars for her campaign. Polls are beginning to show her impact.

A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll, released Tuesday, shows Trump is still ahead by 4 points with registered voters in Pennsylvania and 2 points in North Carolina. But support for Harris is climbing in other crucial swing states — most notably in Michigan, where she leads by 11 points. In Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada, she leads by 2 points. The poll showed the two candidates tied in Georgia.

Tuesday’s poll marks a contrast to an April survey from Bloomberg News/Morning Consult, which showed Biden trailing Trump in every state except Michigan, where Biden led by 2 points.

Former President Trump’s appearance at the NABJ came as some polls show a boost for Harris since she entered the race.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

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According to an Associated Press-NORC poll released Wednesday, the overwhelming majority of Democrats support Harris as the party’s new leading candidate, even if many aren’t entirely convinced of her ability to beat Trump. It found that about 80% of Democrats agree she would make a good president, with almost as many saying they’d be satisfied with her as the nominee.

But only 71% of Democrats believe Harris is likely to win the election, compared with 88% of Republicans who believe the same of Trump.

Harris is expected to name her running mate soon. Speculation focused on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro after her campaign announced that she and “her future running mate” would campaign together next week, starting in Philadelphia. Seen as a top contender for the role, Shapiro could help Harris secure needed support in the battleground state.

Moore and Jennings reported from Chicago, Rainey and Pinho from Los Angeles.

A comparison of polls taken before and after President Biden’s decision to end his re-election bid depicted the fledgling Vice President Kamala Harris campaign gaining momentum with one notable exception.

Harris, who could be the first Black female president and first president of South Asian descent, lost ground to Biden among Black voters, according to a recent analysis.

Delving into the crosstabs, or categorized responses, in New York Times/Siena polling from July 2 and July 24, Biden performed five points better than former President Trump with Black voters.

In the July 2 survey, Biden enjoyed 56% support among Black voters to Trump’s 13% — or a gap of 43 points.

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However, in the latest poll wherein Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic name, the vice president garnered support from 65% of Black respondents compared to Trump’s 17%. That calculates to a 48-point spread and a difference of five.

The disparity was first highlighted in a larger comparison of the two overall polls by Harvard Institute of Politics polling director John Della Volpe.

In a chart titled, “Harris Sees Dramatic Improvement Among Young Voters, Hispanics, Independents,” the MSNBC contributor depicted how Harris enjoyed a 29-point swing in her favor over Biden with voters aged 18-29.

Hispanic voters polled by the Times swung Harris’ way 33 points, and overall registered voters moved seven points her way – offering a 49-49 tie with Trump.

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Democrats and liberal media pundits are dismissing polls showing former President Trump’s gains among Black voters. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)

However, Washington Free Beacon editor Peter Hasson posted Della Volpe’s chart and flagged the fact it also showed Harris losing five points among Black voters to Trump, whom Democrats often brand as racist or discriminatory against minorities.

During an address in Philadelphia earlier this month, Harris claimed Trump “stokes hate” and “incites fear.” Trump, however, has often highlighted relevant parts of his presidential record, such as working with Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., to establish “opportunity zones” in minority communities.

For his part, Trump has made overtures to the Black community during his current campaign, including announcing a planned trip to Chicago this week to join a question-and-answer session with the National Association of Black Journalists.

He also will hold a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – the majority-Black capital of the Keystone State. It will be his first event in the commonwealth since he was nearly assassinated about three hours westward in Butler on July 13.

Following a 2016 rally near Lansing, Michigan, Trump was lambasted from his left for ruminating aloud to Black voters with Democratic proclivities in underserved communities, “What the hell do you have to lose?”

His opponent at the time, Hillary Clinton, called the remark, “so ignorant, it’s staggering.”

Biden notably told a New York radio show popular within the Black community in 2020 that “if you have a problem figuring out whether you are for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.”

Kamala Harris had no sooner replaced Joe Biden as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee than Donald Trump began bashing her over the number of immigrants coming into the United States, declaring that they had driven countless American workers from their jobs.

But the data on U.S. employment and the economy overwhelmingly suggest a reality far more beneficial when it comes to immigration than the nightmarish vision the former president has put forth.

The surge of international migrants since 2021 — including refugees, asylum seekers and others entering legally and illegally — has lifted the U.S. and California economies by filling otherwise vacant jobs, helping to keep job creation strong, growing businesses and pumping millions of tax dollars into state, local and federal coffers.

Payroll taxes on immigrant workers have even helped relieve pressure on the nation’s embattled Social Security system.

There are, of course, short-term public costs associated with acclimating so many new arrivals, plus government expenditures on education and health services for immigrants and their families, along with the political and social challenges. Many agree the current immigration system is flawed and chaotic.

But from a budgetary perspective, the additional federal spending on immigrants is projected to pale next to the increase in revenues from the millions more people working, paying taxes and buying goods and services, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

And more than a few economists say that, by easing the shortage of American workers as the U.S. population grows older and birth rates decline — particularly in California — immigrants have played a large and positive role in maintaining a healthy, growing economy.

“This is the hottest labor market that has existed in two generations,” said Michael Clemens, an economist at George Mason University who specializes in international migration. “That means there have never been as many opportunities for immigrants and natives to mutually benefit each other through economic interaction in the last half century.”

Without immigration, California’s workforce would have fallen well short of its needs, especially since the high cost of living, soaring home prices and other factors have fueled a notable outflow of population from the state.

From 2021 to 2023, the population of U.S. citizens 16 years and older living in California fell by 625,000, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, while employment increased by 725,000.

Over that period, however, the unemployment rates for native-born and foreign-born Californians fell by similar levels — an indication that immigrants are not taking away American jobs.

Moreover, the recent waves of migrants are filling lower-paying, more physically demanding positions that do not attract as many native-born Americans, at least not at the wages that are offered.

An important source of labor

“Immigrants are a really important source of the labor force for California, in the high end as well as in a lot of jobs that don’t pay as well,” said Hans Johnson, a demographer at the Public Policy Institute of California.

Separate employers’ data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that more than 70% of the nearly 400,000 payroll jobs added in California between June 2022 and June 2024 have been in just two industries: social assistance, such as health services for the elderly and child care; and leisure and hospitality, primarily hotels and restaurants.

Both sectors are heavily dependent on immigrant workers.

Employers in construction, another industry reliant on immigrant labor, also added thousands of jobs in that period.

“A lot of what we do is physical — you get on your knees. And Americans don’t do that,” said Tom Straus, owner of Straus Carpets. He’s been in the flooring business in the Bay Area for almost half a century and has regularly hired Latino immigrants. “The work is excellent and strenuous,” he said.

Angie, 28, and her husband and their 6-year-old arrived in Los Angeles last October from a village in Ocaña, Colombia, about 375 miles north of Bogotá. They flew from Bogotá to Cancún, Mexico, and from there to Tijuana. Then the family walked across the border checkpoint into San Diego, receiving provisional entry as migrants seeking asylum.

“It was expensive,” Angie said of the travel costs, money they borrowed from relatives. Given her uncertain status, she didn’t want to provide her last name.

At the border, Angie got a “notice to appear” at immigration court in May 2025, and she can stay in the U.S. legally until at least then. But migrants have to wait 150 days after they formally apply for asylum before they can receive employment authorization.

Angie began working almost immediately upon arrival, first at a clothing business. More recently she found work in housekeeping at a hotel in Los Angeles. Her husband works remodeling houses.

“I feel like I’ve been blessed greatly,” she said.

Angie and her family were among some 3.3 million immigrants who arrived in the U.S. last year, after net immigration of 2.6 million in 2022, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office. Those numbers are roughly triple the annual average in the prior decade. A similarly large number is expected this year, although immigration over the long haul is likely to return to around 1 million a year, experts say.

No one knows how many immigrants who arrive in California decide to stay here. Over the years, increasing opportunities in other states and California’s high cost of living have made it less attractive as a final destination. The latest Census Bureau figures, for 2022, show that 27% of California residents are foreign-born, about double the U.S. share.

Most of the immigration increase in recent years has been driven by foreign nationals entering illegally, asylum seekers and hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine, Venezuela, Haiti and other countries who entered under humanitarian programs and can apply for work authorization.

Since 2021, U.S. border patrol officers have seen a surge of migrants from Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru — but also from countries such as China and India, whose citizens in the past had rarely sought to come through the southwest border, Department of Homeland Security statistics show.

Over the last few years, about 6 in 10 people crossing unlawfully have been turned away, according to an analysis of DHS data by Clemens, the George Mason professor. Most of those who are detained and not expelled are released in the U.S., many because they have shown credible evidence of fear and a desire to apply for asylum.

Then there’s a whole other large group of people who enter unlawfully and are never encountered by border patrol.

What’s behind the surge at the border?

These migrants are part of an unprecedented international movement of people to the U.S. and other rich countries. While some are fleeing political and economic crises, the relocation is actually less a result of bad conditions at home than of successful development — which brings better health, greater awareness of international options and more income for travel. That allows people to pursue opportunities for better lives in the more prosperous countries such as the U.S., experts say.

And technological advancements in many parts of the world have made the journeys more possible. Mobile phones and social media give almost anyone anywhere the basic information needed to migrate.

In his recent trip to southern China researching international migration, UCLA professor Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda met with people in Yunan province who were preparing to immigrate to the U.S. by entering through Tijuana.

“They saw it on TikTok, how to do it,” Hinojosa-Ojeda said.

The primary magnet attracting record numbers to the U.S. is jobs. Though unemployment has edged up recently as a result of government efforts to curb inflation, there are still 10 job openings for every eight unemployed workers in the U.S., according to government data. For most of the last 2½ years the U.S. jobless rate has been at or just above 3.5%, the lowest since the late 1960s.

Although the labor market isn’t as tight in California, at 5.2% in June, the unemployment rate isn’t far off historical lows for the state. And employers are still adding thousands of jobs a month, with some positions going to workers without legal status.

“They’re getting a worker. The only downside is if they get in trouble for it — and that doesn’t often happen,” said Jamie Wipf, operations manager at the International Institute of Los Angeles, a 110-year-old organization that helps refugees and other immigrants.

The nonprofit’s job placement records show many new arrivals are employed as drivers, security guards, caregivers and warehouse workers. The vast majority earn minimum wage to about $20 an hour.

Where California immigrants work

Many employers in California are reluctant to talk about immigration because of the sensitivities surrounding the politically charged issue, especially in this election year. The California Chamber of Commerce, California Business Roundtable and other industry groups declined to comment for this article.

Yet their member companies depend heavily on immigrants. Foreign-born Californians account for one-third of all workers at restaurants and warehouses; about 40% in home healthcare and child day care; almost 50% at trucking and lodging businesses; and 60% at services for landscaping and cleaning buildings, according to a Times analysis of 2022 Census Bureau data.

Are their large numbers holding back wage gains?

Economists say there is some truth to the claim that a surge of working-class immigrant labor could put downward pressure on certain jobs, such as meatpacking and gardening. But studies have shown that immigration has had no significant negative impact on wages for American workers overall.

Giovanni Peri, an economics professor at UC Davis, said large-scale immigration actually boosts productivity and demand for services, which in turn helps companies to grow and create jobs that are more likely to be taken by native-born workers, such as those in sales and management.

It’s also well documented that immigrants have higher rates of self-employment, whether that means working as an Uber driver, pushing a street food cart or launching an ambitious tech business.

Yaroslav Uchkin and his girlfriend, Ukrainian refugees, moved to Los Angeles in February after several months in the Bay Area, where they had stayed with a host family. They both have work permits. Uchkin has found part-time work as a fitness instructor; his partner works as a food server.

“I have some vision,” Uchkin said of a business he’s looking to start, making sports nutrition products. “Why I’m here in L.A.? I love the place for energy. People love sports, they want to look better.”

Uchkin and his girlfriend recently leased a one-bedroom apartment in Marina del Rey. The arrival of many new immigrants has helped reverse or, in L.A.’s case, stanch the population loss in cities that saw a pandemic-related exodus of residents, according to a study by Brookings Institution demographer William Frey.

“There’s no doubt the economy is better off because of immigration,” said Christopher Thornberg, founding partner at Beacon Economics, a research and consulting firm in Los Angeles.

“At one level, I understand people are nervous about folks coming here in an uncontrolled way,” he said, noting that he fears the anti-immigrant drumbeat is getting louder and louder.

“But our nation desperately needs people,” he said. “People have stopped having babies, and so many are going into retirement. And here we really have an opportunity to help our economy in the long run, and we are turning away from it.”