Trump’s North Carolina campaign and allies are pushing for a change in messaging.

He has resumed attacks on Vice President Kamala Trump’s intellect, which many allies and donors had hoped he would abandon, at one point calling her “stupid” and saying her laugh sounds like “gibbering”: “That’s the laugh of someone who has big problems.”

Some allies, donors and advisers have expressed concern about Trump’s deeply personal attacks on Harris in recent weeks, suggesting that Trump should focus on what they say are failed policies that Kamala promoted while in office.

In Wednesday’s speech, he sought to do both and avoid attacks questioning Kamala’s racial identity, which have raised concerns in previous events.

In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly suggested that Kamala, whose mother was born in India and whose father was born in Jamaica, has only recently come to terms with her black identity.

“Personally, it doesn’t matter to me how Kamala wants to present herself,” said Bill Penn, a major Republican donor who hosted Trump’s vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance at a fundraiser in Indiana in late July.

Ben said he spoke with Vance and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley about the need to criticize Kamala based on her political record, not her identity.