Trump embraces MAGA activist at Atlanta rally who repeats his offensive claims about Harris’ heritage

Donald Trump embraced conservative activist Michaelah Montgomery on stage at his Georgia rally before awkwardly quipping that he considered “never going back home to the First Lady”, when they first met at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in April.

Montgomery spoke on stage on Saturday evening at a rally for the former president in the battleground state. She was featured in a video in April where she hugged Trump in the fast food restaurant, where he bought food for his supporters.

Trump later took the stage and called Montgomery back up the stage as he recalled walking into the Atlanta Chick-fil-A in April, where she was behind the counter.

Trump recalled Montgomery saying: “It’s president Trump. You saved my college.”

“And I said: ‘How the hell do you know that?’” Trump added.

He then said “this one,” pointing to Montgomery, is “so smart so sharp. She grabbed me she gave me a kiss. I said: ‘I think I’m never going back home to the First Lady!’”

Montgomery then cut in, jokingly: “Shh, you were supposed to keep that quiet!”

“For the average politician that’s death. For me, I don’t care,” Trump noted.

Melania Trump has been notably absent from the campaign trail, although she did attend the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month. The former first lady wrote a touching tribute to Trump after he survived the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania last month. Before the attack, the Slovenian former model reportedly cut a deal with her husband: if he takes back the White House in November, she would not have to be constantly on first lady duty.

Earlier at the Atlanta rally on Saturday, Montgomery defended Trump over the offensive remarks he made earlier this week about Kamala Harris’ racial background.

“A few days ago president Trump said he didn’t know vice president Harris was a Black woman,” Montgomery said. “I’m trying to figure out what all the outrage is about because she’s only Black when it’s time to get elected.”

Last week, Trump claimed at a conference of Black journalists that Harris “happened to turn Black” only recently, to groans from the audience.

The former president then said: “Is she Indian or is she Black?”

Harris was born in California. Her father, Donald Harris, was born in Jamaica and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was born in India.

Trump’s latest offensive remarks on race come as the former president has insisted in recent weeks that he and his running mate JD Vance are not “the weird ones” - despite Democratic messaging to the contrary.

JD Vance shot back at Harris’ remark that he and Trump were “weird” at the rally on Saturday.

He told the crowd that he thought a number of Democratic stances - like getting rid of conservative book bans and allowing trans-athletes to compete in sports - were “weird.”

It’s “weird” that Harris “sounded like a Southern belle even though she grew up in Vancouver,” he also claimed.