After Donald Trump’s comments at the Black Conservative Federation, a Black-tie event for Black conservatives held in South Carolina, where he said, among other things, that his legal troubles helped endear him to Black people, Trump is being criticized for the racism in such a comparison.
As The Hill reported, several Black leaders, including National NAACP President Derrick Johnson lambasted the comments of the former president. Johnson flatly called the comments racist. “The NAACP is outraged, but not surprised by yet another racist remark from the former President,” Johnson said to The Hill via a statement.
Johnson continued, “Donald Trump is delusional to think that his criminality would be an attractive quality to Black voters,” he continued. “He has taken advantage of an inherently racist system, while Black Americans have been abused by it. We are not the same.”
Mondale Robinson, founder of the Black Male Voter Project, told the outlet that Trump’s comments were unlikely to win the support of Black men. “This is nothing but a continuation of Donald Trump being who he has always been,” Robinson told The Hill
. “Black men are not living in a silo, it’s not as if we don’t know this. We see it. The world might be fooled but that’s not moving to us.”However, despite Robinson’s protest, Trump’s share of the Black male vote increased from 8% in 2016 to 12% in 2020, which Vox notes was largely due to the perception that Trump helped them make more money, even though the actual improvements happened just before he took office. Trump has also used tacit endorsements of his policies from rappers such as Lil Wayne and 50 Cent to gloss over the fact that he has done little to nothing to improve the lives of most Black men, or Black people in general.
Robinson also criticized the willingness of Black Republicans like Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and
Rep. Byron Donald’s (R-FL) to support Trump despite his racist statements. “The only thing that the world is shocked by is that Tim Scott and Byron Donalds continue to support Trump in the light of him showing them how racist he can be and is.”On NBC’s Meet the Press, host Kristen Welker pressed Donalds, who introduced Trump at the event before Trump issued his widely maligned remarks. As Newsweek reported, Welker pointedly asked Donalds, “Congressman it sounds like Donald Trump was implying that he could win Black voters because they get indicted all the time too. Is that what he was saying?”
Donalds tried to situate concerns of Black voters in context of issues with border security before eventually agreeing with Trump’s assessment that Black people will sympathize with being targets of the criminal justice system. “It’s part of it, Kristen. Their look of it is real simple: ‘Well, dang if the government is going after him with foolishness, he can’t be that bad.’”
Donalds also accused those who are critical of Trump within the Biden-Harris re-election campaign of using racial politics ahead of the election before stating: “The number one reason why minority voters in our country wanna support Donald Trump is because he did the job of president. He did a great job as president. Our country was secure, the economy was great, these are all things that Donald Trump talked about Friday night.”
Donalds continued, “He also did talk about the indictments. What Americans don’t want to see, especially Black Americans, and anybody else, they don’t want to see a politicized Justice Department. They don’t want to see a two-tier system of justice…”
Black people are intimately familiar with the concept of a justice system that doesn’t work for everyone the same, but are Black people inclined to see ourselves in a white male billionaire?
The Biden-Harris administration issued its own takedown of Trump.
Jasmine Harris, Black Media Director for the Biden-Harris re-election campaign, released the following statement: “The audacity of Donald Trump to speak to a room full of Black voters during Black History Month as if he isn’t the proud poster boy for modern racism.”Harris continued, “This is the same man who falsely accused the Central Park 5, questioned George Floyd’s humanity, compared his own impeachment trial to being lynched, and ensured the unemployment gap for Black workers spiked during his presidency. Come November, no matter how many disingenuous voter engagement events he attends, Black Americans will show Donald Trump we know exactly who he is.”
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