Donald Trump 'is upset and annoyed with how his 2024 campaign is going and left aides gasping after making this gaffe,' as Kamala finds her feet

Donald Trump is 'upset and annoyed' that Vice President Kamala Harris has stolen the campaign spotlight and aides fear his incendiary comments on her race will hurt his election odds, sources say.

Harris' expected nomination has upended the presidential race and caused a major shift in the polls compared to when President Joe Biden was still the Democratic nominee -- and Trump had a significant advantage in swing states. 

Trump's aides were left gasping when he told the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago that he 'didn't know' Harris was black and thought she was 'Indian all the way,' insiders told The Wall Street Journal.

'A strategy of racism, I don’t think, is healthy for the Republican party, for America in its civil engagements, nor do I think it will be helpful for the Trump campaign,' Rick Tyler, a GOP strategist who was the spokesman for Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign, told The Journal.

People close to the former president said he was been frustrated by the positive attention and whopping amounts of cash Harris has brought in. 

Trump insiders said the former president is frustrated by all the attention his new opponent has received 

Harris is the first black, female, and South-Asian-heritage vice president, but Trump suggested her embrace of black culture was phony

Harris' presidential campaign announced it raised $81 million in its first 24 hours after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed the vice president.

The Trump campaign had planned to paint the vice president as an opportunist and inconsistent on policy. 

But the mercurial former president changed course drastically by bringing his new rival's racial identity into the mix on Wednesday. 

Trump insiders said that he had been thinking Harris was inauthentic with how she presented her race.

Harris is the first black, female, and South-Asian-heritage vice president, but Trump suggested her embrace of black culture was phony at the Chicago conference.

He said: '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. So I don't know, is she Indian or is she black?

Aides were left gasping when Trump said he 'didn't know' Harris was black and thought she was 'Indian all the way' at the NABJ conference in Chicago

'And you know what, I respect either one but she obviously doesn't. Because she was Indian all the way and all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a black person. I think somebody should look into that.' 

Trump then doubled down on Truth Social saying, 'Crazy Kamala is saying she’s Indian, not Black. This is a big deal. Stone cold phony. She uses everybody, including her racial identity!'

The Trump campaign has been trying to court black voters but political strategists fear he will isolate them if he continues to attack Harris over he identity. 

Scott Jennings gave a blunt assessment on CNN NewsNight when host Abby Phillip pressed him about the strategy behind Trump claiming that the vice president just 'happened to turn Black' a few years ago.

'He did crap the bed today,' the pundit and political strategist said, before offering an applicable metaphor. 'The only question is whether he's gonna roll around in it or get up and change the sheets.'