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As his campaign attempts to court Black voters in the 2024 election, Donald Trump tried to highlight his connection to Black Americans by drawing a comparison between his criminal indictments and racism in the justice system.
In a Friday speech at the Black Conservative Federation’s annual gala, where he was awarded “Champion of Black America,” Trump told attendees that Black people can relate to him because, like them, he’s been “discriminated against” by the legal system.
“I got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time, and a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” he said.
Trump also suggested that the indictments against him are being carried out by “corrupt systems” as part of an effort to deny him his rights.
“Some of the greatest evils in our nation’s history have come from corrupt systems that try to target and subjugate others to deny them their freedom and to deny them their rights,” he said. “I think that’s why the Black people are so much on my side now, because they see what’s happening to me happens to them.”
Trump then said that Black people “embraced” his mug shot “more than anybody else.”
“You see Black people walking around with my mug shot, you know, they do shirts, and they sell them for $19 apiece,” the former president said. “It’s pretty amazing — millions, by the way.”
Trump’s attempts to play up his connection with the Black community belie his record. To give just a few examples: Trump was sued for systematically turning away Black tenants in the 1970s. He took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the death penalty for the (now-exonerated) suspects in the Central Park Five case. He breathlessly promoted a racist “birther” conspiracy theory about former President Barack Obama, and about now-Vice President Kamala Harris (and most recently about Nikki Haley, for that matter). He called Haiti and African nations “s---hole countries.”
Perhaps with all that in mind, Trump appeared to try to speak to the progress he’s made on the issue of race.
“These lights are so bright in my eyes that I can’t see too many people out there,” he told the audience on Friday. “But I can only see the Black ones, I can’t see any white ones. That’s how far I’ve come. That’s how far I’ve come. That’s a long — that’s a long way, isn’t it? Ah, we’ve come a long way together.”