Former President Donald Trump accused President Joe Biden of being “a very nasty and vicious racist” during a fiery speech at the annual Black Conservative Federation gala in South Carolina on Friday, where the GOP frontrunner attacked his main Democratic opponent the night before the state’s Republican primary.
Trump accused Biden of courting “notorious segregationists” throughout his political career and blamed the incumbent for authoring the 1994 crime bill that “caused unfair sentencing disparities that devastated the Black community.”
“He said he didn’t want his children to grow up in a ‘racial jungle,’” Trump crowed, referring to comments Biden made during his early days in the Senate. “On top of everything else, Joe Biden really has proven to be a very nasty and vicious racist. He’s been a racist whether you like it or don’t like it.”
Trump, who was flanked by several Black lawmakers, including Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas also took aim at comments Biden made to a Columbia Rotary Club in 2006, when the Democratic senator joked that his home state of Delaware was a “slave state that fought beside the North” in the Civil War.
“He boasted that his home state was a slave state,” Trump fumed. “He was very proud of that; he thought it was great. If you go back and look at his body language, the way he said it, he was very proud of it.”
During the speech, Trump set off a bigger firestorm by suggesting that his ongoing legal troubles — including the police mug shot taken after his arrest in the Georgia election subversion case last August — had boosted his popularity among Black voters, whom he claimed were beginning to identify with him more due to shared experiences of discrimination.
“I got indicted for nothing, for something that is nothing,” Trump told the audience of Black conservatives. “I got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time, and a lot of people said that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against.”
“My mug shot, we’ve all seen the mug shot, and you know who embraced it more than anybody else? The Black population. You see Black people walking around with my mug shot, you know. They do shirts, and they sell them for $19 apiece. It’s pretty amazing—millions by the way.”
It was the latest of several recent speeches in which Trump characteristically expressed grievances against Biden while accusing Democrats of leading a “deep state” conspiracy to block him from a second term.
Despite the uproars, Trump was still expected to deliver an embarrassing defeat to Nikki Haley, his only remaining Republican rival, in her own backyard in South Carolina.
Haley, who has also faced several racial controversies of her own in recent weeks, served as governor from 2011 until 2017 when then-President Trump picked her to serve as ambassador to the United Nations.
Trump’s Friday speech in South Carolina was thorny from the start as Trump led off with an awkward joke that was later criticized as insensitive to Black voters.
“The lights are so bright in my eyes I can’t see too many people out there. But I can only see the Black ones. I can’t see any white ones. That’s how far I’ve come,” Trump quipped while the audience laughed.
As the crowd cheered, Trump remarked, “I think they want the white guy.”
The Biden campaign wasted no time blasting the speech, accusing Trump of pandering to the Black community as the former president has been known for purposely stoking racial tensions with innuendo and dog whistles aimed at riling up his MAGA base.
For decades, Trump has denied being racist, even claiming to be “the least racist person” ever.
However, his actions and statements tell a different story.
Throughout his campaign and presidency, Trump has made numerous explicitly racist and bigoted remarks, from calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists to suggesting a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
He has also been slow to condemn white supremacists and has stereotyped Black and Native Americans.
This pattern of behavior, dating back to the 1970s when he was sued for racial discrimination in housing, suggests that bigotry is not just a political strategy for Trump but an undeniable aspect of his character.
Biden’s campaign asserted that “Trump stands out – especially in modern history” among a handful of notoriously racist presidents.
In a statement, Vice President Kamala Harris slammed Trump’s speech as hypocritical and disingenuous.
“The audacity of Donald Trump to speak to a room full of Black voters during Black History Month as if he isn’t the proud poster boy for modern racism. This is the same man who falsely accused the Central Park 5, questioned George Floyd’s humanity, compared his own impeachment trial to being lynched, and ensured the unemployment gap for Black workers spiked during his presidency,” Harris said.
“Donald Trump has been showing Black Americans his true colors for years: An incompetent, anti-Black tyrant who holds us to such low regard that he publicly dined with white nationalists a week after declaring his 2024 candidacy,” Harris added.
Trump headed into the speech seeing an opportunity to make progress with Black voters as Biden faced challenges reestablishing himself with constituents who have grown apathetic since his election in 2020. Since then, Biden has faced increasing criticism from progressives who claimed the incumbent was losing considerable support among Black voters.
Republicans anticipate that Trump will perform better with Black voters in November than he did in the 2020 election, pointing to Biden’s declining poll numbers.
Ahead of the state’s Democratic primary earlier this month, polls showed voters turning increasingly sour on Biden’s policies, with the president’s lead slipping with people under the age of 30 and among Hispanic voters, while 22 percent of Black voters said they planned to support the Republican nominee in the next election.
Trump believes he holds an advantage on issues such as the economy and the record number of migrants flooding into the U.S. from Mexico, many of whom settle in cities with significant Black populations.
During the speech, Trump touted a handful of economic successes under his administration, including increased Black homeownership, low unemployment in the Black community, opportunity zones, and a decade of federal funding for HBCUs.
In 2019, Trump approved the FUTURE Act, ensuring $85 million annually for HBCUs. However, this followed Congress restoring funds that had lapsed over a decade. The Trump administration hadn’t requested them specifically.
Former college president Walter Kimbrough noted that the bill had overwhelming support in Congress and the $85 million was part of a larger $255 million allocation for minority-serving institutions.
Trump also inherited the low unemployment rate from President Barack Obama’s administration as the country recovered from the 2008 recession.
Trump again now finds himself embroiled in racial controversy as he continues to rail against his political enemies from the campaign trail, including Black judges and prosecutors, as the former president faced the weight of four criminal indictments.
Last week, Trump sparked a similar uproar at a campaign rally in Waterford Township, Michigan, where he slipped the “N-word” into a raucous speech about his ongoing legal troubles, including staggering penalties in two New York civil cases that found Trump guilty of fraud and defamation.
Previously, the 2022 midterm election highlighted trouble on the horizon for Democrats as turnout among Black voters was identified as one of the party’s most notable weaknesses going into 2024.
Black voters have, in recent years, witnessed a shift, particularly among Black men, who are increasingly placing trust in the GOP to address concerns related to the ability to build generational wealth, while a growing number of Black Americans harbor a growing sense of disappointment with Democrats, which had fallen short of addressing persistent issues affecting the Black community.
In recent weeks, Biden has worked to call attention to policies that have benefited the nation’s Black citizens, but it remains to be seen if the actions will translate at the ballot box in November.
Meanwhile, Biden continues to warn against Trump’s “flirtation with white supremacy” as a grave threat to democracy.
“The stakes in this election could not be higher,” Biden said while warning of “extreme and dangerous voices at work in the country — led by Donald Trump.”
