Was Trump ‘most pro-Black president’? Despite racism claims, he lowered unemployment, raised minorities’ incomes
Very few will deny that the Democrat Party has had a stronghold on the Black vote for decades, but Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, has arguably come closest to putting together any semblance of a threat to that monopoly like no other Republican leader in recent times.
“There is an awakening going on right now in the country,” former NFL player Jack Brewer said in 2019 of the perennial grip Democrats have enjoyed over the Black vote. “I’m going to take the guy who’s actually putting in the policies that are going to make life better for my young Black son and my young Black daughter, versus somebody who gives me lip service — like, unfortunately, the Democrats have done for our community for years,” he added. The following, year, Brewer would hail Trump as the "first Black President of the United States" -- a title earned by his predecessor, President Barack Obama.
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It's worth noting that Black unemployment reached its lowest point ever at 5.5 percent under the Trump administration. Trump reportedly did better in 2016 than Romney in 2012. Cultural figures like pop megastar Kanye West, along with conservative firebrands Candace Owens and Diamond and Silk, threw their support behind the former real estate mogul, and although he lost the 2020 election, a growing number of Black GOP supporters could cost the Democrats future elections.
In the final days of the 2020 race, Trump made a special effort to win over the Black vote. His first appearance after recovering from COVID-19 was an address to Black and Latinx voters given from the White House. “Black and Latino Americans are rejecting the radical socialist left, and they’re embracing our pro-jobs, pro-worker, pro-police," he said at the time. "We want law and order, we have to have law and order — and a pro-American agenda.”
Trump continued to woo the minority group on the campaign trail, promising to bring Black employment down to its historic pre-pandemic lows. Meanwhile, he alleged that Biden did not have the best interests of the Black community at heart, airing ads that featured controversial remarks the former Vice President made during an interview with The Breakfast Club’s Charlamagne tha God. “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black," Biden told Charlamagne during a discussion about the needs of the Black community.
Trump's support among Black Americans made gains due to promises of safety, financial security, and prosperity. A Black man from Michigan told the New York Times he was voting for Trump because he believed the former president would make neighborhoods safer.
Meanwhile, rapper 50 Cent noted he was a fan of Trump's tax policies and criticized Biden's tax plan in the lead-up to the election. “Yeah, i don’t want to be 20cent," he joked on Instagram.
However, there was more to Trump's economic pitch than just lower taxes across the board. D’Angelo Crosby, an undecided voter, told Vox that his father mentioned he had never made as much money as he did during the past four years. “It was like, ‘Well, I got a higher pay rate, the highest I’ve ever been paid before. So I definitely think I want to stick with this president, because my money’s looking a little better,'" Crosby said.
Beyond rhetoric, Trump largely capitalized on his personal brand -- something he had built before deciding to take a shot at the highest office in the country. “People don’t realize that before President Trump became president, the Black community loved President Trump,” comedian and Black Trump supporter Terrence K. Williams told the Washington Post. “Everybody wanted to be like President Trump, because he was a successful businessman.”
Trump's self-help books, including his 1987 bestseller 'The Art of the Deal', promised readers they could get rich even if they weren't born wealthy like him and this was the crux of his 'Platinum Plan for Black Americans'.
A number of Trump's prominent supporters reinforced his case, including rapper Lil Wayne. “The platinum plan is going to give the community real ownership," he wrote on social media after a meeting with the former president. "[Trump] listened to what we had to say today and assured he will and can get it done.”
The ambitious plan started with a commitment to “uplift Black communities across the country through a $500 billion investment," which the Trump campaign promised would fund "3 million new Black jobs, 500,000 new Black businesses, increased Black homeownership, and new opportunities for Black churches to receive federal dollars," according to Vox.
“We’ve been voting for Democrats for 50 and 60 years and no progress,” Marco Bisbee, a Black Trump supporter, told the New York Times at a Michigan rally last year. “Y’all had eight years of a Black man as president — he ain’t give you what you need," he added, referring to former President Obama.
In May 2020, Pastor Darrell Scott, of the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, described Trump as the "most pro-black President in my lifetime" at a roundtable discussion featuring African-American leaders and the former president.
“I said it before unashamedly and I say it again: This president has been — I’ve lived under 12 presidential administrations,” Scott said. “I was born during Eisenhower’s administration. This president has been the most pro-black president in my lifetime. But when I say ‘pro,’ I’m saying pro in the sense of being proactive."
“He’s been proactive, rather than reactive, to issues concerning minority, underserved and disadvantaged communities than any other president in my lifetime. I really believe history is going to be kinder to you, Mr President, than the fake news media is today,” Scott concluded. “Can’t be any worse,” Trump quipped at the time, before thanking Scott for his words.
According to Kevin Jones, the first vice-chair of North Carolina’s Nash County Democratic Party, Trump’s promise to provide Black Americans the tools they need to build themselves a better life strikes a chord with many Black Americans — especially those living in the South.
“Nobody believes in bootstrapping more than Black people in the South,” Jones told Vox's Sean Collins ahead of the election. “In my 32 years of life, some of the most conservative people I’ve met are Black people. I think there are way more Black people who vote for Trump than the national media or national narrative will let on," Jones said at the time