FACTS
President Trump announced over the weekend his plan to make $500 billion available to the black community if he is re-elected in November. The “Platinum Plan” aims to create 3 million jobs in the black community, help start 500,000 black businesses, and continue to reform the criminal justice system, including a National Clemency Program. Additionally, he said he would make Juneteenth, the day marking the ending of slavery in the US, an official holiday, and officially categorize the KKK and Antifa as terrorist organizations.
“For decades, Democrat politicians like Joe Biden have taken Black voters for granted. They made you big promises before every election — and then the moment they got to Washington, they abandoned you and sold you out.”
President Donald Trump in a statement at the Atlanta Black Voices for Trump Rally
LEFT
The Left doesn’t buy it. CNN’s Maegan Vazquez argued that Trump has “presented different messages on race when playing to different audiences. He defended Confederate symbols. He has called the Black Lives Matter movement a ‘symbol of hate’.” A statement made by the Biden campaign said the last four years of Trump in office have been “devastating for Black Americans…Now with 39 days to the election, Trump is making more empty promises.”
“This event is a distraction from the fact Trump entered the political scene by denigrating our nation’s first African American president and has spent the last four years advancing anti-Black policies while fanning the flames of racism.”
Jamal Brown, National Press Secretary for Joe Biden 2020 Campaign
Forbes contributor Seth Cohen wrote that Trump has used “over-the top rhetoric” by claiming to be the equivalent of Abraham Lincoln to the black community, but added that at least a plan, whether or not it will work to win over the black vote, is better than none.
RIGHT
The Right praises the plan. K. Carl Smith, a former Army officer and member of the Black Voices for Trump Advisory Board, said the plan will create opportunities for the black community “to grow our own businesses and create generational wealth,” a part of the American Dream that “Black Americans have traditionally been shut out of.” Founder of the Legacy Republican Alliance Corrin Rankin called Trump’s First Step Act during his first term “the most meaningful criminal justice reform in a generation, bringing fairness to our prison system and preparing inmates for reentry into society” and said his Second Step Act will continue this.
“Capitalizing off a successful first term of unprecedented accomplishments for the Black community, the Black Economic Empowerment-Platinum Plan, is a gamechanger for Black Americans and will lead to historic opportunities, security, prosperity and fairness for all Black Americans. President Trump made the Black community a priority in his 4 years in office while Joe Biden spent 47 years creating and supporting policies that destroyed Black families, communities and generational wealth.”
Paris Dennard, Senior Director of Strategic Communications for the Thurgood Marshall College Fund
Show Comments