Topline
Former President Donald Trump said in an interview with news startup Semafor that the fact that he has Black friends proves he is not racist, comments that come as the presumptive Republican nominee makes a push to get minority votes.
“They would not be with me for two minutes if they thought I was racist — and I’m not racist!” the ... [+]
Key Facts
“I have so many Black friends that if I were a racist, they wouldn’t be friends, they would know better than anybody, and fast,” Trump said when asked how he responds when Black voters call him racist.
“They would not be with me for two minutes if they thought I was racist — and I’m not racist!” he continued, according to the Semafor article published Friday.
Trump’s comment comes as he makes a push to get more support from Black voters, a demographic that has consistently skewed Democratic—though a recent Pew Research Center survey found President Joe Biden and his party have lost support among Black voters since 2020.
Big Number
92%. That’s the percentage of Black voters that supported Biden in the 2020 election.
Key Background
The race between Trump and Biden in November is expected to be closely contested, with Trump leading Biden by less than one point nationally as of Friday, according to RealClearPolitics’ polling average. A poll from USA Today and Suffolk University found that Black voters are less likely to vote for Biden this time around, with just 64% saying they’ll vote for him in November compared to the 92% that supported him in the last election. Biden’s approval rating among Black voters has also decreased, falling from 87% in March 2021 to 55% in May, Pew found. Trump’s team has been trying to capitalize on the voting demographics that are moving away from Biden, and has hosted a number of events in recent weeks to try to appeal to them, including a rally in the Bronx—an area that voted 84% for Biden in 2020—in late May. Trump is also scheduled to visit a church in Detroit, which is about 78% Black, this weekend for a campaign event.
