Former President Donald Trump defended himself in a latest interview in opposition to those that suppose he’s racist, saying he can’t be as a result of he has “so many” mates who’re Black.
“I have so many Black friends that if I were a racist, they wouldn’t be friends, they would know better than anybody, and fast,” he stated in an interview with Semafor printed Friday. “They would not be with me for two minutes if they thought I was racist — and I’m not racist!”
A number of Black male celebrities got here to his protection in separate interviews with the information outlet. These males included heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, retired MLB slugger Darryl Strawberry, boxing promoter Don King, and former NFL star Herschel Walker, who misplaced a 2022 Senate race in Georgia.
Sean Rayford by way of Getty Pictures
Trump listed his “strength” and others’ want to be like him as causes that these males converse so warmly about him.
“They see what I’ve done and they see strength, they want strength, okay,” Trump stated. “They want strength, they want security. They want jobs, they want to have their jobs. They don’t want to have millions of people come and take their jobs.”
Trump’s response follows a lengthy historical past of race-baiting. Within the late Eighties, the now-presidential candidate referred to as for the demise penalty in full-page ads, after 5 Black New York teenagers have been accused of rape. (All have been later exonerated.)
Extra lately, after President Barack Obama’s election, he helped spearhead a conspiracy that the primary Black U.S. president was born in Kenya and never the U.S. He defended attendees of the notorious white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, as “very fine people.” He indiscriminately smeared Mexican immigrants coming to the U.S. border as criminals and rapists and he championed a ban on migrants from a number of Muslim-majority nations.
Regardless of his public historical past of judging and persecuting others, Trump informed Semafor that he thinks he appeals to a whole lot of Black males as a result of they’ll relate to his authorized struggles, which he’s referred to as unjust and discriminatory. Trump grew to become the primary former American president to be convicted of felony crimes final month.
“They see what’s happening. And a lot of them feel that similar things have happened to them. I mean, they’ve expressed that to me very plainly and very clear. They see what’s happened to them,” he informed Semafor.
The Trump and Biden campaigns have been growing their efforts to sway Black voters forward of November, assembly with Black enterprise leaders, group teams and religion facilities.
Current polls have proven that Black voters nonetheless overwhelmingly assist President Joe Biden over Trump, although the distinction has narrowed a bit from the place it was 4 years in the past.
In a single ballot printed final month by the Pew Analysis Heart, 18% of Black voters stated they might vote for Trump whereas 77% stated they might vote for Biden. That assist for Trump is greater than double what it was throughout the 2020 election, when 8% of Black voters supported him.
