Trump: Biden Has Been 'Worst President for Black People'

Speaking at an African American church in Detroit, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump took it to his political opponent, President Joe Biden, appealing to Black voters and churchgoers in a key battleground state of Michigan.

"He's been the worst president for Black people," Trump said Saturday afternoon at the 1800 Church, a modest brick building outside the city's downtown core, where "Black Americans for Trump" signs were affixed.

"They're taking your jobs" and "they're invading your jobs," Trump added in the roundtable that aired live on Newsmax and the free Newsmax2 streaming platform, denouncing open border policies that he said have damaged hardworking urban communities, forcing them to compete for jobs and potentially turn to crime.

Trump was using back-to-back stops Saturday to court Black and young voters, including at Turning Point Action's The People's Convention.

"It's a very important area for us," Trump told the crowd in Detroit, promising to return "some Sunday" and stay for a sermon.

"We have done more for the Black population than any president since Abraham Lincoln."

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., introduced Trump at the Detroit church, and Trump teased Donalds as a potential vice presidential running mate.

Trump's weekend plans underscore the evolving political forces shaping the presidential election this fall as he tries to deny Democrat Biden a second term.

Few states may matter more in November than Michigan, which Biden carried by less than 3 percentage points four years ago. And few voting groups matter more to Democrats than Black voters, who made up the backbone of Biden's political base in 2020. But now, less than five months before Election Day, Black voters are expressing modest signs of disappointment with the 81-year-old Democrat.

Michael Whatley, chairman of the Republican National Committee, told Michigan Republicans at a dinner Friday that the state could not be more important.

"Everybody knows if we don't win Michigan, we're not going to have a Republican in the White House," Whatley said. "Let me be more blunt: If we don't win Michigan, we're not going to have Donald Trump in the White House.

"We are going to determine the fate of the world in this election in November," he added.

Trump argues he can pull in more Black voters due to his economic and border security message, and that his felony indictments make him more relatable.

At the church on Saturday afternoon, he repeatedly vowed to "bring back the auto industry." He also said, "The crime is most rampant right here and in African American communities."

Among Black adults, Biden's approval has dropped from 94% when he started his term in January 2021 to just 55%, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll published in March.

About 8 in 10 Black voters have an unfavorable opinion of Trump, with roughly two-thirds saying they have a "very unfavorable" view of him, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in June. About 2 in 10 Black voters have a very or somewhat favorable view of Trump.

Trump won 8% of the Black vote in 2020, according to AP VoteCast. And in what is expected to be a close election, even a modest shift could be consequential.

Maurice Morrison, a 67-year-old lifelong Detroit resident, acknowledged that Trump, for whom he voted twice before and plans to again, is deeply unpopular in his community and even inside his home.

"Once he decided to run for president as a Republican, that automatically made him racist. That's his middle name now — 'Trump is racist' — everybody I talk to, all the people I know, my family," said Morrison, who is Black. "The man cares."

Turning Point, long popular among Trump's MAGA fringe, is now a central player in mainstream Republican politics. The group's weekend speaking program featured a long list of established Republican politicians, including Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

It also included former Trump counselor Steve Bannon, who is set to report to prison by July 1 to begin serving a four-month sentence for defying a U.S. House subpoena.

In his remarks Friday night, Vivek Ramaswamy, who has emerged as a fierce Trump ally since unsuccessfully challenging Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, called on conservatives to reject what he said was the Democrats' embrace of diversity.

"I am sick and tired of celebrating our diversity," Ramaswamy charged. "It means nothing unless there is something greater that unites us."

Information from The Associated Press was used to compile this report.

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