Trump says his criminal indictments boosted his appeal to Black voters
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Former President Donald Trump claimed Friday that his four criminal charges have increased his support among Black Americans who see him as a victim of discrimination, likening his legal danger to the historical legacy of anti-Black bias in the U.S. legal system.
Trump claims he is the victim of political persecution, even though there is no evidence that President Joe Biden or White House officials influenced the filing of 91 charges against him. Earlier this week, Trump compared himself to Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s biggest domestic rival, who died in a remote Arctic prison after being jailed by the Kremlin leader.
“I was charged for nothing, for something that is nothing,” Trump told a black-tie event for black conservatives in South Carolina ahead of Saturday’s Republican primaries. “And a lot of people said this is why black people like me, because they’ve been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they basically saw me as being discriminated against. It was pretty amazing, but there may be something there.”
Trump has focused his third campaign for the White House on his grievances against Biden and what he claims is a “deep state” targeting him even as he is blamed for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including keeps secret documents at his estate in Florida. and allegedly arranging payments to a porn actress. He is the dominant Republican front-runner, as many Republican voters share his beliefs, and is favored to convincingly defeat former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in her home state.
Trump noted the mugshot taken by Georgian authorities after he was indicted on state racketeering charges in the 2020 election.
“When I took the mugshot in Atlanta, that mugshot was No. 1,” he said, adding, “You know who embraced it more than anyone else? The black population.”
Trump’s campaign has predicted he can do better with Black voters in November than he did four years ago, citing Biden’s faltering polling among Black adults and what Trump sees as advantages on issues like the economy and record high number of people crossing the US. -Mexican border, often ending in cities with a large black population.
He was flanked on stage at the Black Conservative Federation gala in Columbia, South Carolina, by black elected officials, including representatives Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas. Many in the audience cheered during the speech.
In a liberal speech, Trump mixed his regular campaign remarks with appeals to the black community and jokes that touched on race.
‘The lights are so bright in my eyes that I can’t see many people. But I can only see the black one. I don’t see any white ones. That’s how far I’ve come,” Trump said, drawing laughter from the audience.
He also said he knew a lot of black people because his properties were built by black construction workers.
In his story about how he renegotiated the cost of renovating Air Force One, Trump criticized his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, the first Black person elected to the White House.
“I have to tell you, black president, but I got $1.7 billion less,” Trump said. “Would you rather have the black president or the white president who got a $1.7 billion cut?”
As the crowd cheered, he added, “I think they want the white man.”
Republicans face an uphill battle in courting black voters, who overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party. And while Black voters’ enthusiasm for Biden has waned over the past year, only 25% of Black Americans in a December AP-NORC poll said they had a positive view of Trump.
Black voters who spoke to The Associated Press ahead of the gala expressed skepticism that Republicans, and Trump in particular, could convince them to switch parties.
“There’s so much controversy,” said Ebony McBeth, a Columbia resident and transportation worker. “I would go for Biden just because Trump has his own agenda.”
Isaac Williams Sr., a retired chef from Columbia and a lifelong Democrat, said he hated both parties but felt Trump had “mobster tendencies.” He’s only out for himself.”
Several conservatives interviewed said the Democratic Party’s appeal to black voters was based on “emotional politics” by invoking racism.
“In order for the Republican Party to win over more of the African American community, we’re going to have to invest a lot of time and more money to really introduce people to our platform, because the truth of the matter is for is many. they agree with our platform, but they don’t associate it with the Republican Party,” said Samuel Rivers Jr., a former Republican senator in South Carolina.
Rivers, who is black, argued that black voters view Republicans “in a negative way based on emotional triggers of racism that no longer exists.”
Trump has a long history of inflaming racial tensions. From his earliest days as a real estate developer in New York, Trump has faced accusations of racist business practices. In 1989, he took out full-page newspaper advertisements calling on New York state to reinstate the death penalty, while five black and Latino teenagers stood trial for beating and raping a white woman in Central Park. The five men were eventually acquitted in 2002 after another man committed the crime and determined that their confessions had been coerced.
For years he has spread the lie that Obama is ineligible for office. When he was president, Trump mocked “shithole countries” in Africa and said four congresswomen of color should go back to the “broken and crime-ridden” countries they came from, ignoring the fact that all women are American citizens and three born in the US
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.