President Donald Trump knows better than anyone the importance of eating into the Black voter constituency of the Democrats if he is to win another surprise term in the White House this November.
Since January 2017, Trump has seemed bent on bettering his support among African Americans. He won only about 8% of the Black vote in 2016 as against Hillary Clinton’s 88%.
But 2016 was also the election in which 1.6 million Black voters who had backed Barack Obama in 2012 did not vote. This is a point that Michelle Obama has wielded as a sort tool for reprimanding those non-committal Black people who gave Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to Trump.
Interestingly, the Democratic establishment is quick to bare its teeth at presumed saboteurs and traitors. Such sternness, however, is withdrawn from Clinton who did not even campaign in Wisconsin in the months to the polls.
While the Democrats hope its Black voter base will fall in line in 2020, Trump sees an opportunity. His pitch has been curt and unchanging: “I am the best thing that has happened to America’s Black people since President Abraham Lincoln.”
We can forgive the tired Trumpian exaggeration. But all the details connected to this mammoth declaration have holes that will leak and expose hot air for what it is.
As follows are some of the huge (imagine Trump himself saying the word) problems with his pitch to Black people. Please note that this is not a suggestive piece for Trump’s campaign; it is probably even too late to help him.
