Back in April 2011, Donald Trump went on Talk Radio 1300 in Albany, New York. He told the host that he was mulling a presidential bid, but he was disappointed that the black community was so supportive of the Kenyan Muslim usurper despite the fact that his birth certificate was clearly a fraud. “I have a great relationship with the blacks,” Trump said, “I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks.”
Contemporary polling in the Empire State showed that 95% of “the blacks” there were behind President Obama, but Trump thought it was more about racial solidarity than job performance.
“Look at Hillary Clinton,” the reality television star continued in reference to the 2008 Democratic presidential primary race. “Hillary Clinton did so much for the black population, so much and got very few votes.”
“Look, I tell it like it is,” he added. “Then you hear a political reporter go on and say, ‘It had nothing to do with race.’ But how come she got such a tiny piece of the vote. It’s a very sad thing.”
It’s interesting that Trump was so ready to acknowledge back then that Hillary Clinton had done “so much for the black population,” and that he asserted that it was “a very sad thing” that she didn’t get more support from them in the primaries.
It’s also interesting that Obama had a 95% job approval rating with New York State blacks in 2011 and that Trump currently has a 94% unfavorable rating from blacks nationally.
A recent Washington Post poll highlights the Achilles’ heel of Donald Trump’s campaign: Minority voters, namely blacks and Hispanics, don’t support him.
The poll, released Wednesday, only shows the problem is evolving for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. A staggering 94 percent of black adults surveyed view Trump negatively, a 13 percent increase since the same poll was conducted in May.
While Trump’s likely general election opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, is boasting a 79 percent favorability rating among black Americans, Trump is fighting claims of racism after launching attacks on a U.S.-born judge of Mexican descent.
“I am not a racist, in fact, I am the least racist person that you’ve ever encountered,” Trump said to The Washington Post last week, defending his comments that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage creates a conflict of interest that prevents him from fairly presiding over a case involving Trump University.
Those comments were met with scorn by both Democrats and Republicans, with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) calling it “textbook” racism.
It’s not unlikely that by taking a tour around the country to question the president’s citizenship, Trump actually bolstered the president’s standing with the black community. I think the whole Birther Movement was so appalling that it caused black folks to rally to Obama in defense. When has any other president been subjected to something so ridiculous and transparently bigoted?
What’s more certain is that Trump earned the everlasting antipathy of nearly every black person in the country. And that’s not something he could afford to do if he ever wanted to be president. Not when he’s running against someone who (as he’s admitted) has done “so much for the black population.”
