US President Trump has claimed that he has done more for black people than his rival in the presidential election, Joe Biden.
“I’ve done more in less than 4 years than Biden’s done in more than 40 years, including for Black America,” Trump tweeted on Monday.
“Biden has been a part of every failed decision for decades. Bad Trade Deals, Endless Wars, you name it, he has shown a complete lack of leadership.”
I’ve done more in less than 4 years than Biden’s done in more than 40 years, including for Black America. Biden has been a part of every failed decision for decades. Bad Trade Deals, Endless Wars, you name it, he has shown a complete lack of leadership. He’s weak & shot!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2020
Trump boasted this month that he and his administration had done more for African Americans than “any president since Abraham Lincoln.”
Among his biggest actions to benefit the black community, Trump lists the criminal justice reform, unemployment rates, his project to create “opportunity zones” in distressed areas through business incentives, and his approval of funding for historically black colleges.
Trump did notoriously poorly among black people in 2016, winning just 8 percent of their votes. Little has changed since then, with a fresh NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll showing that 88 percent of the black community would vote for Joe Biden compared with 9 percent for Trump.
His key re-election pitch to black voters was the record-low unemployment rate among that portion of the population, but it took a hit after the coronavirus pandemic decimated the economy.
Trump’s ratings dipped in the past month over his administration’s handling of the crisis and the George Floyd protests. Black people have disproportionately higher hospitalisation and death rates from COVID-19, something the Trump administration has acknowledged but partly blamed on their health. Critics suggest that his environmental and housing policies may have played a role too.
Joe Biden, in turn, has positioned himself as a champion of civil rights and repeatedly praised his record with African Americans, ranting recently that black voters who choose Trump over him “ain’t Black”.
Biden does have a history of advocating civil rights and racial equality in Congress, although his critics have highlighted his work with pro-segregation senators in the 1970s and especially the 1994 federal crime bill he spearheaded, which criminal justice experts said led to an overall decrease in crime but also to the mass incarceration of black people.
