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Trump Keeps Bragging About Endorsements from Black People — Only Problem Is Many Are on His Payroll

Surprise, surprise!

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Donald Trump has long been after the black vote. After his performative pardoning of a few prominent cases of black people convicted for the same crimes white people committed, but were sentenced to much harsher terms, he tried to take credit for the decrease in the black unemployment rate — that was already on its way down when he entered office.

To top it off, he’s claimed multiple times now that he has support from black people because he has been embroiled in the legal system. He thinks he can compare his “persecution” to the systematic racism still present in our justice system.

Now, he’s being even more shameless.

He’s organized an entirely astroturfed “coalition” of “Black Americans For Trump,” as though there’s some movement afoot.

In fact, his campaign came out and made a big announcement about it, as though HE’D been approached by them.

What they failed to mention is that among the names of those in the group were at least three people currently on his payroll. They released the list on Saturday, and it had all kinds of names on it, from former legislators to former football players.

But it also had the names of three people who are employed by Trump, and he conveniently left that part out.

According to The New Republic, those names are “former RNC official Gina Barr (who is currently titled as the Trump campaign’s Executive Director of Black Coalitions), Trump campaign spokesman Janiyah Thomas, and senior Trump advisor Lynne Patton—who has received more than $233,000 in ‘payroll’ disbursements from the Trump campaign, according to data from the Federal Election Commission.”

Thomas wasted no time after joining the “coalition” in sounding exactly like a campaign spokesperson, and framing the entire effort as being representative of black Americans who feel left in the dust by the Democrats:

“While Black Americans have been left behind by Joe Biden, President Trump has prioritized the Black community. Donald J. Trump’s coalition message to the Black community is simple: If you want to return to the policies that created rising wages, more quality jobs, stronger borders, and safer neighborhoods, then join Black Americans for Trump and vote for President Trump in November.”

It’s a blatantly naked effort to garner whatever small portion of a voting demographic that rarely goes Republican — of the last ten black US Senators, only a few remain, and all but one are Democrats.

Biden essentially has the black vote on lock, with no effort whatsoever. Marginalized groups like black people, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and immigrants know that only one party actually cares about them.

Andrew Simpson
meet the author

Andrew is a dark blue speck in deep red Central Washington, writing with the conviction of 18 years at the keyboard and too much politics to even stand. When not furiously stabbing the keys on breaking news stories, he writes poetry, prose, essays, haiku, lectures, stories for grief therapy, wedding ceremonies, detailed instructions on making doughnuts from canned biscuit dough (more sugar than cinnamon — duh), and equations to determine the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow. A girlfriend, a dog, two cats, and two birds round out the equation, and in his spare time, Drewbear likes to imagine what it must be like to have spare time.

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