Donald Trump says his legal problems give him street cred with Black voters

Donald Trump’s record with Black Americans is spotty. From early claims of housing discrimination at his properties to accusing Barack Obama of being born in Kenya, it’s easy to imagine that they have no love for Trump. However, Black voters could end defining who goes to the White House.

USA Today reported that, during a South Carolina rally, Trump claimed that the over 90 criminal charges presented against him had boosted his popularity among Black voters.

During the event, which was co-sponsored by the Black Conservative Federation, Trump told his followers “Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against”.

“I think that’s why the Black people are so much on my side now,” Trump added, as cited by USA Today. “Because they see what’s happening to me happens to them.”

Diante Johnson, the president of the Black Conservative Federation, told The Guardian that “No amount of media deception or liberal race-baiting will sway the minds of Black voters who will cast their ballots this November”.

Pictured: Trump with Kanye West, controversial musician and well-known Trump supporter.

What is true is that Trump supporters are doing the impossible and then a bit more to try to gain inroads within Black voters, even making people up!

The BBC reported that images released by Trump supporters showing The Donald hanging out with Black people were actually made using AI.

Image: The Young Turks / YouTube

The images, according to the BBC, had no direct connection with Donald Trump nor anyone affiliated to his campaign.

Instead, these appear to have been generated and shared between Trump supporters themselves in order to attract Black voters.

One of the images, showing Trump hanging out in a porch with a group of young men, originated from a satirical website but took off when it was posted on social media with a fake story about Trump’s motorcade stopping by to meet Black supporters.

NBC News highlights that during the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump got 12% of the Black vote, the highest for any Republican presidential candidate in decades.

Darrell Scott, a Black Ohio pastor and adviser to the Trump campaign, told NBC that he thinks that Trump could get as much as 20%of the Black vote in the 2024 Presidential Election.

The number, NBC claims, is within Trump’s reach. By early February, he was polling 16% among Black voters, a number that goes up to 28% among Black voters under the age of 34.

However, as USA Today points out, this would still mean that at least 80% of African American voters would swing to the Democrats despite Biden’s popularity overall plummeting.

A December poll made by AP News showed that Biden’s approval rating among Black people in the US was only of 50%, compared to 81% in July 2021.

If Biden doesn’t get better numbers, there’s no small chance that getting the cold shoulder from Black voters could cost him the election.