Former President Donald Trump’s recent campaign trail comments that his four criminal indictments gained him the support of Black voters due to them seeing him as a victim of discrimination have received backlash from some, including Rev. Al Sharpton.
Trump made the assertion on Feb. 23 to a room of Black Republicans at the Conservative Black Federation in Columbia, South Carolina.
The former president, who has been charged with 91 criminal offenses as of December 2023, told the crowd, “I got indicted for nothing, for something that is nothing. They were doing it because it’s election interference, and then I got indicted a second time, and a third time and a fourth time.”
Trump continued, “And a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against,” as light applause can be heard in the background.
“And they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against. It’s been pretty amazing,” Trump added.
He also told the audience that his mug shot — taken at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta on Aug. 24 after he voluntarily surrendered following his indictment on racketeering and other charges — has been embraced by the Black population more than any other group.
“I’m being indicted for you, the American people. I’m being indicted for you, the Black population,” Trump also said at the event.
Sharpton shared his displeasure with Trump’s comments on Monday during an appearance on MSNBC, accusing Trump of exploiting the stereotype of Black people as criminals who would, therefore, “gravitate toward somebody in a mugshot.”
The civil rights and social justice activist said while Trump was featured in a mug shot for election interference-related charges, Black people have been arrested during marches in attempts to earn the right to vote.
He called Trump’s comments “the epitome of an insult,” considering that Black prosecutors, including New York State Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis are prosecuting him.
“So he’s saying that Black people would relate to someone indicted for trying to undermine the elections by Blacks, but we would go with him rather than them?” Sharpton said.
During Trump’s speech ahead of last Saturday’s Republican primary, he also made some jokes about the Black audience, including stating, “The lights are so bright in my eyes that 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,” as the crowd laughed.
Sharpton said that during his decades of involvement in the civil rights movement, he has never seen Trump stand up in support of Black people wrongly treated by the criminal justice system.
“It was he that took out ads in newspapers calling for the death penalty of five young Black and brown boys [accused] of raping a white woman in Central Park who went to jail falsely,” Sharpton said during his MSNBC commentary. “It was later proven they didn’t do it because of DNA. Donald Trump said, ‘No, punish them anyway!’”
Sharpton also said that “any shameless Blacks” that applauded Trump’s rally comments “need to check the facts.”
Meanwhile, former Congressman and Biden-Harris reelection campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond, who is Black, also responded to Trump’s comments, calling his claims that Black people will support him because of his criminal charges “insulting,” “moronic,” and “just plain racist,” ABC News reported.
“He thinks Black voters are so uninformed that we won’t see through this shameless pandering. He has another thing coming,” Richmond said.
A spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee said in a statement that Trump is “showing Black voters exactly what he thinks of them – and his ideas to win them over are as corny and racist as he is,” according to ABC News.
Activist and pastor Bishop Talbert Swan shared on X, formerly Twitter, “There’s no Black man alive who could be accused of raping 26 women, inciting an insurrection against the government and have 91 pending criminal charges and be the leading candidate for a fast food cashier position, let alone POTUS.”
Swan continued, “We DO NOT relate.”
Trump’s four indictments include a 34-count felony indictment for falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels and 37 felony charges related to his storage of and refusal to hand over hundreds of classified documents at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump was also charged last August with four federal criminal counts following an investigation into Trump’s alleged attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, including the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
He and 18 others were charged by Willis in an indictment in August following a two-year investigation into election fraud in Georgia.
Rep. Byron Donalds, a Black Republican from southwest Florida who has been named one of Trump’s potential vice presidential picks, came to Trump’s defense during an appearance on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
“Let’s be very clear, our economy is a mess; our border is completely unsecured. These things are causes of major concerns for Black voters like it is for every voter in our country,” Donalds said.
“But then when you layer on the fact that yes, this is political persecution from the Department of Justice and from radical DAs throughout our country, this is something similar that Black people had to deal with with the justice system themselves.”
Donalds continued, “Their look of it is real simple: ‘Well, dang, if the government’s going after him with foolishness, he can’t be that bad, especially considering the fact that Joe Biden is terrible at his job.’”
