Former President Donald Trump made a racy joke Saturday about leaving former first lady Melania behind at his Georgia rally, calling to the stage an activist who had given a speech earlier at the event directly attacking Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump brought up Michaelah Montgomery at the end of his speech at his rally at the Georgia State University Convocation Center in Atlanta.
He explained that he met Montgomery earlier this year in Atlanta at a restaurant. Trump claimed that when he entered the restaurant, which was a Chick-fil-A, she was “standing behind the counter” and said to him, “President Trump, you saved my college.”
“This one is so smart, so sharp. She grabbed me. She gave me a kiss,” Trump said as Montgomery stood next to him. “I said, ‘I don’t think I’m ever going back home to the first lady.'”
“You really should have kept that quiet,” Montgomery joked after making a quiet gesture as the audience laughed.
“Look, to the average politician, that’s death. I don’t care,” Trump said.
Donald Trump brings Michaelah Montgomery on stage during his rally in Atlanta, GA on Saturday, August 3, 2024
Montgomery is a Georgia activist who first encountered Trump at a Chick-fil-A when he was campaigning there earlier this April.
Trump’s version of the story was a little strange since she wasn’t behind the counter, but their encounter went viral after she asked Trump for a photo.
“She loved her education and she said, ‘You saved my education,’” Trump recalled Saturday, before leaving it up to Montgomery to decide where she went to school.
Montgomery is a 2020 graduate of Clark Atlanta University, a Historically Black College or University, or HBCU. She founded Conserve The Culture, a grassroots campaign.
While president, Trump signed a bipartisan bill that strengthened HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions.
Trump touted these funds during his campaign to appeal to black voters.
Trump with Michaelah Montgomery (left) at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta on April 10
Trump kisses activist Michaelah Montgomery after bringing her onstage at his Atlanta rally
Trump called Montgomery “incredible” and said she has a “great future.”
Before Trump brought Montgomery to the stage toward the end of his speech, she spoke at a rally earlier in the evening where she attacked Harris and defended Trump’s recent false claims about the vice president’s racial identity.
Trump said in an interview on Wednesday that Harris, who is biracial with an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, “happened to be black” in recent years. He and his campaign have since doubled down on their line of attack.
“I’m trying to understand what all the outrage is about because she’s black when it comes time to get elected,” Montgomery said at the rally Saturday.
“The same black people who are angry at Trump because he’s confused about her race, ethnicity, nationality, whatever, seem to forget that while you’re praising her as a savior for black people, she identifies as an Asian woman,” Montgomery continued. “She chose her side, and it wasn’t ours.”
Harris is the first Black and South Asian Vice President of the United States and identifies as both Black and Indian. She attended the historically black Howard University, where she was a member of the historically black Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Harris responded to Trump’s criticism of her racial identity last week with comments indicating she would not debate her black identity with a white man.
“It was the same old show,” Harris said. “The division and the disrespect. And let me put it this way: The American people deserve better.”