Months before his criminal trial began, former President Donald Trump stood before black conservatives in South Carolina and appealed directly to African-American voters on a provocative (and, critics said, racist) topic. Like you, I am being unjustly persecuted. Criminal justice system.
This was just the beginning of Trump's highly calculated effort to undermine President Joe Biden's standing in a district that has historically been one of the Democratic Party's most reliable voting blocs.
Three Trump campaign officials described the former president's strategy for attracting Black voters during the trial and beyond to POLITICO, revealing an in-depth look at their game plan as he launches his campaign ahead of November.
According to Trump's advisers, the former president and his campaign will use his legal troubles and New York's racial issues more broadly to make Trump, a 77-year-old white man from a privileged family, appeal to black voters. It has a history of offensive rhetoric and suffers the same injustices that afflict black Americans.
He will make targeted outreach to voters of color during campaign-style stops in and around the city, including historically black areas like Harlem. And they say he will try to turn the city's immigrant crisis into a wedge issue to get black voters bitter about local Democratic officials who approved millions of dollars in resources to support newly arrived immigrants instead of their own communities.
“The Biden administration has made a deliberate choice to prioritize the interests of illegal immigrants over the interests of the American people,” Trump campaign political director James Blair told POLITICO. “And black voters, like every other group of voters in America, are outraged by this.”
Perhaps no politician in modern America has been able to address voter anxieties about issues of race, ethnic rivalry, and cultural grievances more effectively than Trump. From calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and criminals to saying “both sides are to blame” after white supremacists and neo-Nazis took part in violent protests in Charlottesville, the former president has criticized people who are white, male, and educated. It has continued to appeal to low-income voters on issues. He has often received widespread backlash from Democrats and his own party.
But recent polls have shown him to have some influence with black voters. And his campaign is now deliberately targeting them with a more sophisticated approach than he displayed early in his political career, using the ongoing trial in New York as the stage.
Black men, in particular, are a key constituency that his advisers see as something that can and will escape Biden. A Wall Street Journal poll this month found that about 30% of black men in seven key swing states said they would definitely or probably vote for Trump as president.
Dissatisfaction with Biden in this voting bloc stems from his handling of the economy and immigration issues. If those numbers hold, it would nearly triple support among black men for Trump, who four years ago received just 12% of the vote from black men, according to AP VoteCast, a poll of voters conducted on Election Day. The day before that.
The stakes between Trump and Biden are enormous. Even if Trump makes some improvements with black voters, it could change the results in hotly contested states in November.
Trump has already started using this strategy. During a stop at a general store in central Harlem last week, the former president criticized Biden's border policies and the New York Democrat's allocation of millions of dollars in rent and food assistance to recent arrivals.
“They’re pouring in, they’ve taken over the parks, they’ve taken over the hotels and everything, so it’s no use,” Trump said. President Trump also mentioned a program in January that provided $53 million in prepaid debit cards in New York City. Helping tens of thousands of migrants in the city pay for temporary housing and food.
“Do you know what they did?” he said “They killed so many people. “The African American community is now without jobs, and immigrants are taking the jobs that are here illegally.”
Trump's rhetoric on immigration issues is particularly strong. Tens of thousands of immigrants from Latin American countries and elsewhere have been used as political pawns by conservative countries in recent years. Migrants, many seeking asylum, have been bused or driven to liberal cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, and Washington, creating tensions with black residents who feel marginalized and the elected leaders of color who run those cities.
For example, at a contentious Chicago City Council meeting last summer, Jeanette Taylor, a Black councilwoman, broke down in tears during a debate over whether to transfer $51 million in city funds to support immigrants.
“We’re so tired of us saying, ‘We need to do something,’ when everyone else is in crisis. But when this violence occurs in the Black community, nothing is said, nothing is done,” Taylor said.
But activists branded her a “sellout” and a “traitor” when she voted to approve the transfer of funds.
“It would be foolish not to take advantage of the fact that Trump is in New York state,” Lynn Patton, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in an interview. “We have been impacted by illegal immigration since Biden took office,” she said.
But the former president's critics highlight reports that minority-themed support centers launched under former RNC leadership have closed since Trump reorganized the Republican National Committee. They say it's proof that Trump's attempts to connect with voters of color are cosmetic. But Trump officials have confirmed they will identify and maintain strategic centers they say are critical to broader outreach efforts.
Blair ridiculed this characterization.
“Having an office doesn’t mean volunteering,” Blair said. “They don’t want you to talk about the fact that 62% of black voters say immigration and border security are going in the wrong direction, and they want to talk about office space.”
Trump officials acknowledge they will have to be strategic in how they deploy Trump because the New York trial will greatly limit his ability to campaign. The only day the trial is not regularly held is Wednesday, but President Trump is usually free to raise funds and hold events over the weekend. On Saturday, he plans to hold a rally in North Carolina.
But Trump's attempts to reach black voters can sometimes seem manufactured or clumsy. Earlier this year, the former president released Trump sneakers, which a Fox News pundit praised as a “connection to black America.” More recently, the former president's campaign tried to create a viral moment on social media when Trump visited a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta in April and was greeted by black fast-food employees. A video posted online shows Michaelah Montgomery, a black woman, telling him, “I don’t care what the media says, Mr. Trump. “We support you,” he said before walking up to him and hugging him. .
Chick-fil-A location along the way From the airport to the Fulton County Jail where the former president had his infamous mugshot taken in his Georgia criminal case, he was accused of being involved in a plot to overthrow the state's 2020 election.
But some black conservatives in Georgia criticized Trump's visit as pandering rather than genuine service to the community. Black conservative radio talk show host Sonnie Johnson called it a “photo op” on social media, while Felecia Killings, who runs a conservative think tank in Atlanta specializing in black outreach, called it corny. I laughed.
“This is a serious moment for Trump and black outreach,” she said in an interview. The campaign pushed back on both Killings' and Johnson's characterizations.
But the Trump world takes this very seriously. Last week, Donald Trump Jr. sat down for a wide-ranging interview with hip-hop podcaster and internet personality DJ Akademiks. In it, the former president's son touted how he would help black Americans if his father is elected in November. He also compared federal agents' search of Mar-a-Lago to the recent raids of Sean “Diddy” Combs' homes in Miami and Los Angeles, calling both “bullshit.”
“I’m not saying our judicial system has always been fair,” he continued. “If they could do this to Trump…” “Who would want to do that?”
It was similar to the message Trump sent to black Republicans in South Carolina in February, where he tried to connect with his audience by highlighting his problems with the criminal justice system.
“Our message to the black community in this election will be very simple,” Trump said. “If you want strong borders, safe neighborhoods, higher wages, good jobs, a great education, and the return of the American dream, congratulations. You are a Republican.”