As of: February 28, 2024, 11:03 a.m
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Trump is courting the votes of African-American voters in Michigan and revealing how he really feels about the black electorate.
Columbia – Former President Donald Trump entered the US Republican primary in Michigan after openly reaching out to black voters.
Not just any black vote, not the liberal electorate of Detroit or the poor residents of Flint, but conservative voters in South Carolina.
He did so Friday night in a speech at the Black Conservative Federation gala in Columbia.
Trump took the stage to the usual sounds of Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless the USA.”
Two of the many black men waiting to greet him were Ben Carson and Representative Byron Donalds (Republican of Florida).
They sang along fervently and happily proclaimed how proud they were to be Americans.
Trump's rhetoric between Jim Crow and 80s rap
Most of those in attendance were dressed formally, but Trump arrived in a dark suit with a bright red tie hanging below his belt.
Much of what Trump said was familiar, such as his claim that he won the election that he actually lost.
Some of it was unfounded, like calling President Joe Biden a “racist.”
And a lot of it was just Trump courting the black electorate, making clear how he views black people in general and their place in the social hierarchy.
Trump's public statements about black men and women reflect a sensibility somewhere between Jim Crow and late '80s rap.
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Trump tries to score points with humor - action backfires
Trump began his meandering U.S. primary speech with a familiarity that belied his rapport with the majority of the black electorate.
Although his share of the Black electorate has increased from 8 percent in 2016 to 12 percent in 2020, he has not earned the right to speak as if he is family.
He laughed that the spotlight blinded his eyes and he could only see the black people in the audience.
He joked about Barry Bonds and Babe Ruth and who hit the most home runs, and when the black men on stage pointed out that Bonds held the record, Trump relented.
But he added: “Tonight I’m with Barry.
I belong to Barry.
In front of another group, I might be with Babe." In another speaker, whose relationship with black Americans would have been less transactional, less overtly condescending, more respectful and more truthful, these comments might have had a touch of "It's just us" humor .
Trump categorizes the black electorate as criminals - without even realizing it
But Donald Trump has stubbornly relegated Black Americans to the category of “you people.”
In Trump's estimation, this stalwart group of people will be reduced to the criminals and the unscrupulous.
Now they should join forces with him, after all, as he says, he belongs to them.
Because he himself is now being charged criminally and held civilly liable.
Now that Trump believes he is being wrongly accused of a variety of crimes, he is unfurling his lawsuits to elicit pity.
In doing so, he ignores his own recent history.
He has been at the forefront of making false accusations in service of his presidential ambitions.
He pointed a finger at Wayne County, Michigan - the county with the largest proportion of black voters in the state.
At that time he accused them of falsifying votes.
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Former US President Donald Trump.
© AdMedia/Starface/Imago
Trump sees “you” as shady characters, as people who spend their lives constantly dealing with the police, the justice system or gangster mythology.
Black people, he says, love his mugshot, taken in Fulton County, Georgia, when he was charged with organized crime.
In Trump's telling, they revere that mugshot as if it were a shiny new health care plan or a roadmap to criminal justice reform or a gift card for affordable, high-quality child care.
Trump associates black voters with poor education and overcrowded high-rises
For him, black residents are inner-city residents, a description intended to evoke images of crowded high-rises covered in graffiti and smelling of human waste.
The absolute opposite of the shiny glass and chrome skyscrapers that also exist in the cities he loves to mock, like Chicago and New York.
These are the very cities where he liked to stick his name in big, shiny letters on the buildings.
In his address to black conservatives, Trump gave no indication that he sees them as well-educated, that they may be suburbanites or small-towners or middle-class citizens in city bungalows.
If he sees their achievements at all, it is in the context of how these awards benefit himself.
He pointed out that Senator Tim Scott (Republican of South Carolina) had given a rousing speech earlier in the evening.
“He’s better for me than he is for himself,” Trump said.
So Scott is a good person.
Only those who flatter the ex-president are good for Trump
And by good, Trump means Scott — the recently engaged former presidential candidate who wears his Christianity like a merit badge — compliments Trump effusively.
He raves about Trump with the opacity and inaccuracy of someone who has stared directly into the blinding sunlight of ambition.
He tries to convince people that he can still see clearly and accurately.
The truth floats around him like afterimages, those dark spots that keep appearing and disappearing.
For Trump, black people are workers.
Whether they are lazy or efficient, they are not his employees.
Your presence serves a purpose.
They are cited as outstanding examples of choosing to support Trump in the 2024 US election, as tearfully grateful recipients of Trump's presidential largesse, or as pure entertainment.
Everyone makes room for Trump: He sees himself destined for victory by God
But they do not surpass Trump, nor are they his equal.
Trump has acknowledged the presence of Carson, who was briefly a front-runner for president during the 2016 Republican primary.
But Carson is a good black man because even when he was in the lead, Carson proclaimed that he believed Trump was ordained by God to win.
This is the story Trump told.
Of all Carson's accomplishments, Trump chose to highlight his willingness to cede the spotlight to him, even though the renowned surgeon had so much more to offer.
In Trump's worldview, everyone strives not to be at the bottom of the ladder, lest they be the back that everyone else stands on.
The immigrants pouring illegally or desperately across the southern border have failed to grab the ladder in the first place.
Black people are on one of the lowest rungs.
Trump will reach out to the black men and women who understand this.
He promises to lift her up.
His political power can commute their sentences, reduce their taxes and further their ambitions.
As long as people don't forget their place.
And Trump makes it clear that this place is nowhere near where he can comfortably and disdainfully look down on them.
About the author
Robin Givhan
is a senior critic who writes about politics, race and art.
Givhan, who won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2006, has also worked for Newsweek/Daily Beast, Vogue magazine and the Detroit Free Press.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on February 27, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.