Trump urges pro-Democratic black vote to switch to his camp

He won only eight per cent of the black vote, compared to 88 per cent for his opponent Hillary Clinton in 2016

ATLANTA: President Donald Trump on Friday sought to crack Democrats' solid hold on black voters, telling a gathering of African-Americans in Atlanta that the left has taken them for granted.

Trump hammered home his platform of fighting illegal immigration and using trade wars to rebuild the manufacturing base, saying that this especially benefits black communities.

He touted rock bottom unemployment of 3.2 per cent across the country -- even if it remains higher for blacks at 5.4 per cent -- and appealed to the "vital role of African-American churches."



"For decades, the Democrats have taken African-American voters totally for granted," he said in Georgia's historic state capital.

"They're nice to you just before the election and then they forget about you," he said. "They get your vote and they say 'bye-bye.'"

The launch of a "Black Voices for Trump Coalition" aimed to build on the president's bid to reverse decades of hostility from African-Americans to his Republican party.

The reality is that Trump is overwhelmingly opposed by black voters. While they comprise less than 14 per cent of the overall population, their fierce loyalty to the Democratic party makes them a potent force in presidential elections.

In his 2016 triumph, Trump won only eight per cent of the black vote, compared to 88 per cent for his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

And deepening that traditional Democratic-Republican split is fallout from Trump's repeated controversies on racial issues.

For years, he brazenly promoted the hoax conspiracy theory that then president Barack Obama, the first African-American to win the White House, was not born on US soil and therefore was illegitimate.

Early in his presidency, he caused an uproar when he appeared to fail to condemn a march by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying there were "fine people on both sides."

More recently, he attacked a revered black congressman, the late Elijah Cummings, by describing his heavily African-American city of Baltimore as "rat and rodent-infested."

A Quinnipiac University poll in July found that 80 per cent of African-Americans think Trump is racist.

"Black Americans have never had a better champion than President Trump," said Katrina Pierson, a Trump 2020 reelection campaign advisor, predicting that the new "black voices" coalition would help him to a second term.

As part of the charm offensive, Trump announced Friday on Twitter that he would be hosting the winners of a pro-Trump talent show dubbed #MAGACHALLENGE. Showcased in the tweet: a right-wing black rapper.

Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, called these efforts a "sham" aimed more at disrupting the Democratic grip on African-American voters, than really trying to connect.

"It's a travesty, it's hypocritical, it's insulting," he told AFP.

"What this is really about is trying to minimise black turnout for the other side," he said. "They don't even need to win 20 per cent of the black vote, if they can cause enough confusion so that the (voter turnout) goes down, then it's a victory for them."

In a close race, small margins can make a big difference.



Clinton was hurt by low turnout among blacks in key swing states, like Wisconsin, that flipped to supporting Trump. In 2020, Democrats will want to try and recover every last one of those votes.

As former vice president under Obama, Joe Biden is easily the Democrat with the strongest support from African-Americans, but his candidacy has faltered recently.

Up-and-coming rivals like Elizabeth Warren are so far failing to excite black voters, giving Trump a possible opening for his bid to weaken that seemingly rock-solid Democratic constituency.