According to CNN on August 1, former US President Donald Trump falsely claimed that his potential Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, "appeared to have transformed" into an African-American in recent years.

The statement was made at a meeting of African-American journalists in Chicago (Illinois) when a reporter asked him about Ms. Harris.

"She's always been Indian, and she's just promoting her Indian heritage. I didn't know she was black until years ago, when she accidentally passed as black, and now she wants to be known as black. So I don't know, is she Indian or is she black?", Mr. Trump replied.

The former president stressed that he always respected both, and said that "no one should consider" what he wondered.

Speaking later in Houston, Texas, Harris said former President Trump's description of her was "the same old show, divisive and disrespectful." "I'll just say this, the American people deserve better," she said.

Mr Trump's comments mirror similar attacks on previous African-American political opponents, including years when he promoted the false theory that former President Barack Obama was not born in the US.

As for the current US vice president, her mother is Indian and her father is Jamaican and both immigrated to the US. Ms. Harris was born in Oakland (California) and studied at Howard University in Washington DC, formerly a school for African-American students.

She is the first woman, African-American and Asian American to become vice president of the United States.