He’s been called racist, but Trump has a growing new army of support – Blacks and Latinos
THERE is a certain predictability to Donald Trump’s rallies. A sea of red ‘Make America Great Again’ hats, tons of stars-and-stripes flags and an enthusiastic crowd of maunly white, working-class fans who make up his loyal base.
But in recent months there has been a noticeable change in the people turning out to cheer the former president on as he campaigns from North Carolina to Nevada and from Arizona to Arkansas in his bid to return to the White House in November’s presidential election.
Increasingly, supporters wearing ‘Blacks for Trump’ T-shirts and brandishing ‘Latinos for Trump’ placards are standing alongside the former president’s traditional supporters – and their numbers are growing each week.
Recent polls have shown that working-class minorities, who historically vote for the Democratic Party headed by President Joe Biden, are turning their backs on him in droves.
A poll by AP-NORC showed only 50% of black adults said they approved of Biden, down from 86% in July 2021. At the same time, 25% of black adults said they approved of Trump, up from 18% in 2021.
Craig Scott, a 54-year-old black filmmaker and Trump supporter from North Carolina, isn’t surprised in the slightest.
‘When it comes down to it, people vote with their wallets and no one can argue life in America today is better under Biden than it was under Trump,’ he said. ‘A trip to the grocery store or gas station is hitting folks where it hurts. Biden is old and out of touch. Ask most people if they were better off under Trump and the answer is yes.’
Facing multiple lawsuits for everything from election fraud to tax evasion – which Trump describes as ‘a political witch hunt’ – has, ironically, garnered him sympathy from minority voters.
Scott, who joined a black militant group as a teen in the 1980s and was jailed for 26 years for holding up a white-owned bank and depositing the money he stole into a black-owned bank, said: ‘Black communities are used to feeling persecuted. When Trump had his mugshot released a lot of us felt sympathetic towards him.
‘His run-ins with the law and what seems like an unfair obsession with putting him behind bars, reminds us of what has historically been done to us.’
For Latinos, predominantly Mexican immigrants and those from Central and South America, the decision to back Trump is more personal. It is a backlash against Biden’s disastrous ‘open border’ policies which have seen 7.3 million migrants illegally cross the southern border of the US since he took office, according to US Custom and Border Protection official figures.
There are 36.2million eligible Hispanic voters in 2024, up from 32.3million in the 2020 election. Latinos now make up almost 15% of America’s electorate and will likely hold the key to whoever wins in November, particularly in battleground states such as Arizona and Nevada, which Biden narrowly won in 2020.
In January, a USA Today/Suffolk University poll showed Trump was ahead with 39% among Latino voters, compared to Biden’s 24% – a massive slump since the 2020 election when Biden garnered 65% of Latino votes.
Texan dentist Alma ArrendondoLynch, 67, whose family is originally from Mexico, took part in a ‘Take Our Border Back’ rally.
‘I’m not against people coming into America but they should do it legally,’ she said.
Another woman who arrived in Los Angeles 20 years ago from El Salvador and who preferred not to give her name, said: ‘It took me years and thousands of dollars to get a green card and US citizenship. It’s wrong Biden is letting millions of illegals flood in.
‘Why should they be given work visas and be allowed to stay when they haven’t followed the same rules as the rest of us?
‘It’s our communities that are hurting because of these illegals. They are taking resources away from poor areas. Our schools can’t cope, our hospitals can’t cope. That’s why I’m voting for Trump.’
Professor Taylor Dark, of the political science department at California State University, said people should not be surprised minorities are supporting Trump.
He said: ‘Many of the predominantly working-class blacks and Latinos feel Biden isn’t prioritising their interests. Economically they feel worse off under Biden.
‘The Democratic party is dominated by college-educated people and their focus on issues such as transsexual rights doesn’t align with the views of these workingclass groups. They are turned off.
‘Many blacks and Latinos don’t like the scale of illegal immigration. They don’t like it in principle and they view illegal immigrants as people who will potentially take their jobs. These minority groups are turning towards Trump for the same reasons the white working classes embraced him in 2016.’
Neither blacks nor Latinos seem bothered by claims that Trump is a racist who once declared he didn’t want immigrants from Haiti or from African nations and ‘other
Ask people if they were better off under Trump and the answer is yes
It’s wrong that Biden is letting millions of illegals flood in to the country
s***hole countries’.
‘Trump isn’t perfect and he’s said stupid things and has been photographed with some stupid people but I don’t care about that,’ said a film executive who is a member of the group Blacks For Trump.
‘This is a fight for America. When he was president, Trump introduced prison reforms which helped African-American communities; he gave grants to black colleges; he gave stimulus cheques to promote black-owned small businesses. What has Biden done for us?
‘Biden talks the talk but he’s a limousine liberal who has done nothing of any real importance to change the lives of ordinary black people in this country. We’ve traditionally voted Democrat but many were disillusioned by Barack Obama. He arrived in the White House offering change and hope, but nothing changed. Black people are sick of being fed lies. Trump can’t do any worse than Biden.’
Trump has said he is considering Tim Scott, the first black senator from South Carolina in America’s Deep South, as a potential vicepresidential running mate. Scott, who briefly stood against Trump before dropping out of the race to be the Republican nominee, dismissed Trump’s legal woes and racist statements, saying: ‘The American people are more focused on the future than on his past.’