Andrew Bolt: Why Donald Trump must now beware of Kamala Harris the shapeshifter

Does Donald Trump seriously want Joe Biden to resign and let Kamala Harris become the first female president? He and his Republicans seem too arrogant to realise she is a much bigger danger to them than Biden ever was.

What’s with Donald Trump and his Republicans? Are they trying to help Kamala Harris win the November election?

They seem too arrogant to see that Joe Biden’s vice-president is a shapeshifter, and a much bigger danger to them than Biden ever was.

Harris has already ruthlessly sewn up the numbers to replace President Biden as the Democrat nominee now that he’s been forced to quit the race.

It’s all gone brilliantly for her. In her first 24 hours as the (unofficial) candidate she’s raised a record $350m in donations, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows her leading Trump by two points.

With the massive advertising she can buy, Harris can now turn herself into a candidate who can really hurt Trump, who’s got so many Americans locked into hating him that he’s never scored above 48 per cent approval, even when running against a half-dead Biden.

Yet Trump, running mate JD Vance and Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, have so far spent more of their time attacking Biden instead. Worse, they’re insisting he now quit as president, too.

I get their argument. If Biden is too incompetent to run for president, isn’t he too incompetent to remain president?

It’s a great point, but why is Trump making it? Does he seriously want Biden to resign and let Harris become the first female president, so she goes into the election with all the advantages of office?

Kamala Harris is both a blank sheet to most Americans and a shapeshifter. Picture: AFP

Luckily for the Republicans, Biden is still too selfish for that, ringing his campaign headquarters staff as Harris was there and declaring: “I’m not going anywhere”.

But the Republicans should stop underestimating Harris, who Trump airily dismissed last weekend as “crazy”.

Sure, she’s got plenty against her – her manic cackle, her woke word salads, her lack of obvious empathy, and her total failure in the one clear job Biden gave her, to stop the illegal immigrants flooding into America. Up to 10 million have invaded under her watch.

But Harris is 19 years younger than 78-year-old Trump and isn’t stupid, despite appearances. On her first full day as candidate she also showed she can rip into Trump like Biden couldn’t, reminding cheering supporters she used to be a district attorney, adding: “In those roles I took on perpetrators of all kinds – predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”

Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have so far spent more of their time attacking Biden. Picture: AFP

More importantly, Harris is both a blank sheet to most Americans and a shapeshifter.

It’s no coincidence that her mantra, repeated to the point of parody, is “to see what can be, unburdened by what has been”. Harris has never let her new self be burdened by her past one.

For instance, despite seeming a woke nitwit now, Harris was tough on crime in California, campaigning for election as attorney general by targeting gang crime under the slogan: “A new voice for justice”. And tough she was, even on marijuana users.

Only when she went to Washington did she shapeshift to a Leftist soft on crime. When Black Lives Matter protesters torched American cities, Harris appealed for donations to a legal fund promising to help those arrested.

Another example. Harris used to promote her Indian roots, using her full name: Kamala Devi Harris. She was raised by her Indian mother – alone – after her father left the family when Kamala was just seven.

Now, when the black vote is so important, she is sold more as an African American, even though her father was actually from Jamaica.

Despite seeming a woke nitwit now, Harris was tough on crime in California. Picture: AFP

More shape-shifting: on the campaign trail, Harris woos the rural vote by publicly cooking and eating steaks at state fairs, but as Biden’s vice-president she’s backed government programs to stop global warming by persuading Americans to eat less red meat.

Which shape won’t Harris shift to, unburdened by her past?

Good question, given a very personal example.

Harris is married to a Jewish lawyer who says his faith has been deepened by all this anti-Semitism now. But Harris has meanwhile appealed to her party’s hard Left by damning Israel so much that she was told by administration officials to tone it down.

She even demanded a six-week immediate ceasefire that would have handed Hamas victory.

All this suggests Harris has no real moral centre or deep political principles.

But that frees her to make any change she needs to beat Trump, with all the money in the world to help her. Let Trump beware.