The president told a Pennsylvania crowd, “Black people love Trump,” as he railed against Somali immigrants and touted the U.S. economy, which is disproportionately harming Black Americans.
In an attempt to dismiss criticisms that calling U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Somali immigrants “garbage” wasn’t racist or discriminatory, President Donald Trump made an off-the-cuff remark about Black Americans and “scams.”
While delivering remarks at a Tuesday night rally to tout his economic policies and discuss “affordability” in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, Trump accused Democrats of turning Pennsylvania into a “dumping ground for hundreds of thousands of migrants from the most dysfunctional places on earth, like Somalia, and gave them billions and billions of your taxpayer dollars. But we didn’t really give it. It was stolen. And those people should go to jail.”
Trump and the White House have escalated their anti-immigration rhetoric in recent weeks following the shooting of National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., committed by an Afghan national, as well as a recent report about a few dozen Somalis in Minnesota committing fraud with COVID-19 funds. The Trump administration has used these headline-grabbing moments to suggest that its strict immigration enforcement should be scaled up.
“It’s a scam. And it’s headed up by the crooked congresswoman,” the president said of Omar, also seemingly referring to Minnesota. He continued, “She said, ‘How dare you say that about me? It’s discrimination.’”
Trump then switched gears to talking about Black Americans more broadly.
“Let me tell you, Black people love Trump. I got the biggest vote,” said the president, seemingly referring to his increased share of support from Black voters in the 2024 presidential election.
“I got the biggest vote with Black people. They know a scam better than anybody. They know…what it is to be scammed,” he added.
While Trump notably increased his support among Black voters in the 2024 election, from 8% to 15%, according to Pew Research, an overwhelming majority of Black Americans supported Kamala Harris over Trump. What’s more, Trump’s share of the Black vote, while the most in half a century for a Republican, is hardly as large as that of previous Republican presidents in the pre-New Deal era, when the Republican Party garnered 30-70% of Black voters.
President Trump went on to claim the country has had “the best 10 months ever in the history of the presidency.” He argued, “For the first time in 50 years, we now have reverse migration, which means more jobs, better wages, and higher income for American citizens, not for illegal aliens.”
U.S. Rep. Omar, whom Trump has repeatedly attacked in recent days, excoriated the president’s insults about her and other immigrants.
“Trump’s obsession with me is beyond weird. He needs serious help. Since he has no economic policies to tout, he’s resorting to regurgitating bigoted lies instead. He continues to be a national embarrassment,” the congresswoman wrote on X.
Despite his administration’s ramp-up of immigration enforcement, including mass deportations, it has not resulted in improved economic conditions for Black Americans. Since Trump took office for his second term, the Black unemployment rate has steadily increased to 7.5%, which is nearly double the national rate and the highest since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
According to a report from the Center on American Progress, Trump’s economic policies, including his global tariffs, are disproportionately harming Black Americans and Black businesses.
What’s more, Trump’s crusade against diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, and cuts to the federal workforce and public education have resulted in job losses and threaten to narrow pathways to economic and social mobility for Black Americans.
“MAGAnomics continue to be a failure, and Trump’s economy, by every measure, continues to be inferior. The overall grade of his presidency continues to be a failure,” Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright told theGrio.
“Truth be told, we’re now seeing the continued stages of a lame duck presidency by Donald Trump. We see fractures in the MAGA bone, and you see folks willing to not only take a stand.”
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