Trump launches group building Black support at Detroit church event
DETROIT â Former President Donald Trumpâs campaign launched its Black voter coalition group Saturday, the clearest effort yet by Trump to target a voting bloc that has overwhelmingly supported Democrats in past elections but has been unusually open to Trump in public polling.
The announcement came ahead of a community roundtable event at 180 Church, a predominantly Black worship center in Detroit. Among the Black Republicans present at the Trump event were former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson and Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and John James, R-Mich.
âHistoric rates of Black voters now support President Trump, and the reason is simple: Black voters know that President Trump is the only presidential candidate who can deliver results on day one because he already has,â the Trump campaign said in statement heralding the launch of its âBlack Americans for Trumpâ effort, touting unemployment rates and household income levels for Black people during his presidency.
The new Trump coalition group marks an attempt by Trump to mirror the Black outreach efforts of President Joe Bidenâs campaign, which so far has invested millions of dollars into hiring, organizing and paid media solely designed to engage its Black voting base.
The Biden-Harris campaign launched its own Black voter coalition group, âBlack Voters for Biden-Harris,â in Philadelphia earlier this month. The event marked a rare joint appearance by both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, both of whom credited Black voters for being crucial to their 2020 victory.
At that event, Biden and Harris sought to frame Trump as being a threat to Black American progress and ticked through several of Trumpâs past controversies.
âWhat do you think he would have done on Jan. 6, if Black Americans had stormedâ the Capitol, Biden said at the event. âI donât think heâd be talking about pardons. This is the same guy who wanted to tear gas you, as you peacefully protested George Floydâs murder. The same guy who still calls the Central Park Five guilty even though theyâre exonerated.â
In a statement, Biden-Harris spokesperson Jasmine Harris said, “Donald Trump thinks the fact that he has âmany Black friendsâ excuses an entire lifetime of denigrating and disrespecting Black Americans, but Black voters know better â and Trumpâs eleventh hour attempt at Black âoutreachâ isnât fooling anyone.”
In a recent television ad, the Biden campaign also suggested Trump was an âenemyâ to Black voters. It has referred to the former president as âa textbook racist who disrespects and attacks the Black community every chance he gets.â
Yet Trump, during the Detroit roundtable, framed Biden as the threat to Black Americans, referencing his role authoring the 1994 crime bill.
âHe walks around now talking about the Black vote â heâs the king of the âsuper predators,ââ Trump said. âHe wrote the 1994 crime bill that you all talk about so much, I guess everybody here knows about that, especially if you happen to be Black.â
Supporters of the former president say the current political environment is conducive to Trump making inroads with Black voters, and the launch of Trumpâs coalition group is the latest effort to dig in with younger, Black men in particular, who appear more willing to hear his message.
Trumpâs Black outreach this election cycle began in February when he headlined the Black Conservative Federationâs annual gala ahead of the South Carolina Republican primary.
The group plans to continue to support the former president Black outreach efforts. The Black Conservative Federation held a free community barbecue ahead of Trumpâs Detroit event and plans to hold similar events throughout the month of June, as it accompanies Trump to events in cities with large Black populations.
It was at that February Black Conservative Federation event that Trump first began spreading a now-popular narrative amongst Republicans that his legal cases could boost his appeal with Black voters.
âI got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time, and a lot of people said that thatâs why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as Iâm being discriminated against,â Trump said at the time.
Months later, Trumpâs belief in that theory has only grown stronger. The former president held one of his more racially diverse rallies in the Bronx, NY in the waning days of the New York hush money trial.Â
The belief has also been perpetuated in part by Trumpâs support from popular Black cultural figures, including rappers Sexxy Red, Kodak Black and 50 Cent. During a visit to the Capitol last month, the rapper spoke to Trumpâs standing with Black men.
âI see them identifying with TrumpâŠbecause they got RICO charges,â 50 Cent said.
Trump has recently enlisted local rappers to attend his events. Detroit-based rapper Sada Baby, whose 2020 single âWhole Lotta Choppasâ went viral on TikTok, was invited by Trumpâs campaign to attend the Detroit roundtable event.
But other Black voters though have been put off by Trumpâs assertion that community members identify with him more because of his overlapping legal cases, suggesting the claim is rooted in stereotypes at best, and racist at worst. Undecided Black voters who spoke with NBC News as part of a focus group in February said they found the comment offensive.
âI donât know any African American men who paid hush money for a cover up of some sexual infidelity,â El-Mahdi Holly of Georgia said. âIt would be to his benefit to realize that we donât engage in the type of activities that he has found himself in by and large.â
After the shuttering of several RNC minority centers earlier this year, some Black Republicans had privately been expressing concern over the campaignâs lack of infrastructure in predominantly Black cities and the effect it could have on Black voters newly interested in Trump.
James, the Michigan congressman, said he told Trump during a White House meeting âyears agoâ that Republicans previously had not âmade an investmentâ in Black outreach sufficient enough to yield a return.
âWe need to show up, which is why weâre here today,â James said. âWe need to be like the original Republicans who were willing to make themselves uncomfortable for the purpose of freedom.â
Prior to the launch of Trumpâs coalition group, Trumpâs Black outreach had largely centered on quick stops at businesses in largely Black areas, including a stop at a Chick-fil-a in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was greeted by several HBCU students.Â
Michaelah Montgomery, an organizer of that Chick-fil-a visit who went viral over her embrace of Trump, said some HBCU students that were pictured with Trump later faced bullying and ostracization by some of their peers.
âMy students faced relentless bullying when news broke of our encounter at CFA. They were ostracized by their peers, donors threatened to pull their donations, people said they were embarrassing their institutions,â Montgomery recounted.
Now, many Black supporters of the president feel there has been a shift. Trump hosted nearly a dozen of the Atlanta HBCU students for a dinner at his Florida resort earlier this month.
Trumpâs campaign to win over Black voters will be bolstered by several of his allies, including multiple vice presidential contenders.
Sen. Tim Scott announced a $14 million dollar âfull-fledgedâ Black voter outreach campaign that will focus on targeting low-propensity, Black and Latino voters in battleground states ahead of the election.
Donalds and fellow Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, held a âCongress, Cognac & Cigarsâ event in Philadelphia earlier this month for a âreal conversation about the Black male vote.â The two will hold a similar event in Atlanta later this month.Â
And Trump plans to hold his next rally in Philadelphia next Saturday, an event that will serve as another opportunity for the former president to sharpen his message to Black voters.
