Commentary

Commentary: As Harris Makes History, Trump Campaigns to Be Gaslighter-in-Chief 

With the Democratic National Convention in Chicago now concluded and Vice President Kamala Harris officially nominated as the party’s candidate for President, former President Donald Trump has wasted no time reverting to his usual playbook, peddling division and negativity.  Rather than campaigning on the critical issues facing the country, Trump is trolling anyone he perceives is making fun of him or questioning his competence. In front of his supporters, he openly mocked his advisers who urged him to focus on policy.

Published

9 months ago

August 30, 2024

Oakland Post

V.P. Kamala Harris at the DNC in Chicago. Photo by Max Elramsisy.

By Joe W. Bowers Jr., California Black Media 

Rather than campaigning on the critical issues facing the country, Trump is trolling anyone he perceives is making fun of him or questioning his competence. In front of his supporters, he openly mocked his advisers who urged him to focus on policy.

Gaslighting, a tactic designed to make people question their reality, has been a constant feature of Trump’s political career. Whether downplaying the severity of COVID-19, casting doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election, or distorting his administration’s achievements, Trump has skillfully used this approach to manipulate public perception.

While Democrats celebrated Harris’s historic nomination and urged the nation to turn the page on Trump, he was in swing states launching personal attacks and spreading misinformation, reinforcing his image as an “unserious”, “weird”, and backward-looking candidate out of touch with American values. His appearances were filled with off-the-cuff remarks, unhinged tirades, and humiliating blunders. He ridiculed President Joe Biden’s appearance, labeled former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “crazy,” called Harris “lazy” and “stupid,” and described former President Obama as “nasty.”

Trump’s gaslighting of Harris goes even deeper, questioning her background and identity, implying that Democrats might not fully understand “where she came from” or her “ideology.” This tactic which he’s used against other prominent Black leaders, including Obama and women of color in Congress, is designed to paint Harris as an outsider, despite her Oakland roots, her experience being bused to public school, and graduating from Howard University, a historically Black college. His deliberate mispronunciation of her name, a blatant sign of his racism and disrespect, aims to marginalize her as “other.”

Trump has tried to label Harris as “Lyin’ Kamala” and brand her a “communist,” calling her “Comrade Kamala”, even suggesting that “Kamala” sounds like “communist” — a childish play on words that he finds clever.

The barrage of personal attacks Trump’s been launching is part of a broader pattern in his strategy, which hinges on the “Big Lie” — the baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

As Harris steps into her role as the Democratic nominee, her campaign offers a hopeful vision for the future and bold solutions to national challenges, standing in stark contrast to Trump’s backward approach. For Black Californians, and all voters, the challenge is to assess each candidates’ rhetoric, evaluate the information, and make a choice based on the facts.

Trump’s gaslighting underscores his persistent disregard for the truth and his readiness to exploit fear and prejudice to stay relevant, raising questions about what national leadership role he’s really after.

While “Gaslighter-in-Chief” may aptly describe the position Trump is campaigning for, and although he is seeking another higher office, it’s essential for the future of the America that he doesn’t succeed in achieving this title as well.

About the Author

Joe W. Bowers Jr. is a contributing editor to California Black Media. He is a graduate of Stanford University.

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Arts and Culture

BOOK REVIEW: Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy

When Bridgett M. Davis was in college, her sister Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

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2 weeks ago

April 28, 2025

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Love Rita Book Cover. Courtesy of Harper.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: Bridgett M. Davis, c.2025, Harper, $29.99, 367 Pages

Take care.

Do it because you want to stay well, upright, and away from illness. Eat right, swallow your vitamins and hydrate, keep good habits and hygiene, and cross your fingers. Take care as much as you can because, as in the new book, “Love, Rita” by Bridgett M. Davis, your well-being is sometimes out of your hands.

It was a family story told often: when Davis was born, her sister, Rita, then four years old, stormed up to her crying newborn sibling and said, ‘Shut your … mouth!’

Rita, says Davis, didn’t want a little sister then. She already had two big sisters and a neighbor who was somewhat of a “sister,” and this baby was an irritation. As Davis grew, the feeling was mutual, although she always knew that Rita loved her.

Over the years, the sisters tried many times not to fight — on their own and at the urging of their mother — and though division was ever present, it eased when Rita went to college. Davis was still in high school then, and she admired her big sister.

She eagerly devoured frequent letters sent to her in the mail, signed, “Love, Rita.”

When Davis was in college herself, Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

First, they lost their father. Drugs then invaded the family and addiction stole two siblings. A sister and a young nephew were murdered in a domestic violence incident. Their mother was devastated; Rita’s lupus was an “added weight of her sorrow.”

After their mother died of colon cancer, Rita’s lupus took a turn for the worse.

“Did she even stand a chance?” Davis wrote in her journal.

“It just didn’t seem possible that she, someone so full of life, could die.”

Let’s start here: once you get past the prologue in “Love, Rita,” you may lose interest. Maybe.

Most of the stories that author Bridgett M. Davis shares are mildly interesting, nothing rare, mostly commonplace tales of growing up in the 1960s and ’70s with a sibling. There are a lot of these kinds of stories, and they tend to generally melt together. After about fifty pages of them, you might start to think about putting the book aside.

But don’t. Not quite yet.

In between those everyday tales, Davis occasionally writes about being an ailing Black woman in America, the incorrect assumptions made by doctors, the history of medical treatment for Black people (women in particular), attitudes, and mythologies. Those passages are now and then, interspersed, but worth scanning for.

This book is perhaps best for anyone with the patience for a slow-paced memoir, or anyone who loves a Black woman who’s ill or might be ill someday. If that’s you and you can read between the lines, then “Love, Rita” is a book to take in carefully.