COLUMBIA, S.C. — Donald Trump took the stage here Thursday, surrounded by some of the country’s most prominent Black conservatives, with a message: He can secure a historic share of the Black vote for Republicans.
“In 2020, we increased our share of the black vote by 50%,” Trump said during a keynote address to the Black Conservative Federation. Black people love Trump. There must be a mistake.”
He added that he believes Democrats have “done a terrible job” for black Americans, who he says relate to him because they understand he is “discriminated against“in the legal system.
Trump was joined on stage by representatives Wesley Hunt of Texas and Byron Donalds of Florida, as well as Ben Carson, who led the Department of Housing and Urban Development during Trump’s first presidency.
The Black Conservative Federation event was held a day before the Republican primary in South Carolina, where a quarter of the population is black.
And it comes amid an array of groups closely aligned with Donald Trump’s campaign that are poised to push for Republicans to win a historic share of the black vote in the 2024 election.
“We have coalition groups across the country that very, very soon will be launching initiatives that will focus on things like voter outreach and engagement in those communities and messaging in black communities,” said Rev. Darrell Scott of Black Ohio. Advisor to Trump and helping to lead the effort.
“We have people who are soldiers,” said Scott, who said he spoke directly with the former president about the plan. “We’re building a network across the country and we’re going to have an impact.”
Scott said the goal is to bring together conservative groups that already have a foothold in Black neighborhoods in politically important states, with the specific goal of programming against what he called “negative messages” about Trump.
“It will focus on direct voter engagement and messaging to specific communities,” Scott said. “I never intend to counter the negativity coming from the Trumpers. We will dispel the existing narratives about him.”
Since entering the political fray, Trump has embraced and amplified the baseless conspiracies of Barack Obama, the first black president. Not born in the US; In 2020, he falsely claimed Vice President Kamala Harris was not suitable for that office because his parents were migrants.
Recently, Trump has used dehumanizing language in several of his legal challenges, including describing black prosecutors. uses the expression A “George Soros-backed animal,” as he described Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who is black and led an investigation into a cover-up of “hush money” payments Trump made to an adult movie star in the run-up to the 2016 election. Trump also “used”rabid” to describe Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis, who is investigating whether Trump tried to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 election and lied about his involvement with a gang member.
Jasmine Harris, the Black media director of the Biden campaign, called Trump an “anti-black tyrant” before the Black Conservative Federation gala.
“Donald Trump has the audacity to speak in front of a room full of black voters during Black History Month, as if he’s not a proud poster boy for modern racism,” he said. “This is the same man who falsely accused the Central Park Five, called George Floyd’s humanity into question, compared his own impeachment trial to a lynching, and provided unemployment benefits for black workers during his presidency.”
“Donald Trump has been showing black Americans his true colors for years: an incompetent, anti-black tyrant who thinks so low of us that he had an open dinner with white nationalists a week after announcing his 2024 candidacy,” he said.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the statement.
Scott’s position in Trump’s orbit has expanded over the years, and he has become one of the president’s closest advisers on issues related to black voters. NBC News informed Last week, Scott recently spoke to Trump and warned him that his relationship with conservative activist Charlie Kirk could hurt him with black voters. In recent months, Kirk has criticized Martin Luther King Jr. and questioned the qualifications of black pilots.
“We need some conservatism to shut up about their racism. “You have guys like Charlie Kirk attacking MLK and stuff,” Scott told NBC News last weekend. there is no [Trump’s] intimacy.”
“Part of our goal is to pull some of that back,” he said.
Last week, Scott called Kirk, who heads the U.S. conservative organization Turning Point, a “racist.” Andrew Colvet, a spokesman for the group, said Kirk was under fire because his organization was fighting to unseat Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. He said Kirk and the group will “be available” to receive the hit “as a parting shot from the old guard at the RNC.”
Scott said the effort won’t fully begin until Trump is the presumptive nominee, but the work to put together a national coalition of groups — whose names he’s not yet ready to publicly share — will act as a drag on the ground. started
“Republicans are starting to warm to Donald Trump because he has reached out to black Americans,” said Marcel Dixon, a black former Republican congressional candidate who worked with Scott in South Carolina. “One of the messages “Why? people spend billions on illegal immigration and what have black americans gotten after 60 years of voting democrats?
The groups will craft messages aimed at black voters around issues such as immigration, opposition to foreign wars and the economy under President Joe Biden.
“One of the main things we want to talk about is people voting with their pockets,” Scott said. “Looking at the prices of food, gas, interest and inflation, it comes out of everyone’s pocket.”
Despite facing accusations of outright racism from his critics since entering politics, Trump’s 12% share of the black vote in 2020 was the highest for a Republican president in decades, and the latest public opinion polls suggest he may surpass that number. In 2024.
If their efforts are successful, Scott said, he thinks Trump could win more than 20% of the black vote, which would be a historic number for a Republican candidate. A recent public survey suggests that this figure is within reach. Trump wins 16% of black voters in 2023 NBC News voteWith black voters under the age of 34, that number rose to 28%.
Some evidence that Trump is struggling with black voters in the popular vote emerged last week ahead of a contest in South Carolina where Trump dominated most of the state’s popular vote.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Trump’s top surrogate and rumored potential vice presidential pick, condemned Biden’s comments. framed current congressional republicans as racists.
“The president of the United States thinks all Republicans are racist,” Scott said Thursday after early voting at a Charleston-area polling station. “So to see the comments coming from the President is just remarkable, disappointing as a citizen.”
“I thought of him [Trump] He was the worst person until I did my own research,” said Aliyah Abdallah, a Black Democrat-turned-Republican campaigning for South Carolina candidate Latrecia Pond. “You have to learn to trust no one’s information but your own. I was stuck in my own world of cognitive dissonance.” .
During the event, Abdallah talked about his previous support for Black Lives Matter and how he voted for former President Barack Obama but is now working to help elect Trump.
“Donald J. Trump is nothing but evil,” he said. “I am pro-life, pro-closed border and pro-truth in knowing the difference between men and women.”
Pond is running in South Carolina in 2022, the same Democratic seat he lost by 43% of the vote. He says he’s seen a marked change in the attitudes of black voters in South Carolina over the past two decades.
“I’ve been here since Bush. I have been to communities that have appealed to my people,” he said. “Now I see more black people coming to the party. “I see black people leaning toward the Republican Party and Trump.”
Biden’s Democratic allies blame the shift in public voting in part on what they say is insufficient media attention to Biden’s achievements and growing concerns about misinformation.
Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, a longtime Biden confidant who helped him win the state’s black vote in 2020, said his biggest concern as the general election nears is the continued spread of disinformation, including the use of artificial intelligence.
“Everybody knows what happened in 2016 and 2020, and now we’re seeing what’s happening in New Hampshire. It’s disinformation and disinformation targeting African-American voters, that’s what worries me,” he said. “We have to do something about it. It’s stupid to sit here and realize that this is happening.”
The Attorney General of New Hampshire is John Formella examines records It was sent to many voters before this state’s primary, using artificial intelligence to imitate Biden’s voice and encourage Democratic voters not to vote. There is no evidence that this robocall is specifically targeting Black voters.
Clyburn stated Concern to NBC News before Black voters, especially young people, in the February 3 South Carolina Democratic primary were not turning out for Biden in 2020, as they did when Clyburn’s endorsement helped Biden win South Carolina and change the fortunes of a fledgling campaign.
“We’re going to have to bring in an army of volunteers in these communities, we can’t rely on traditional ways of doing things,” Clyburn said in an interview with NBC News on Tuesday. “We have to engage in hand-to-hand combat, and it is clear to me that the other side creates another condition that allows us to deny the results. [of the 2024 election].”
Clyburn said he believes Biden’s agenda will resonate with voting groups and demographics, especially since the president has so far forgiven nearly $140 billion in student loan payments, providing a historic change that allows his administration to negotiate Medicare prices with the goal of lowering drug costs. , capped the price of insulin at $35 a month and made significant investments to fight climate change.
In South Carolina, which has one of the nation’s largest black populations, conservative efforts began to shift black support away from Biden during his party’s primaries.
NBC News informed A conservative group began financing an experimental secret campaign ahead of South Carolina’s Democratic primary on Tuesday, sending 75,000 mailings to likely voters in the heavily black Democratic primary. The effort, funded by anonymous donors, was focused on the Biden administration’s desire to ban menthol cigarettes, which are more commonly used by black smokers, according to a study cited by the FDA.
“Leadership is about setting priorities. Instead of banning menthol cigarettes, President Biden should: Stop the flow of illegal drugs into our country; make grocery products more affordable; make college more affordable,” read the mail piece.