A video posted by a MAGA enthusiast showing a likeness of Martin Luther King Jr. endorsing Donald Trump has drawn the ire of the late civil rights icon’s daughter.
Bernice King, CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, called on @MAGAResource, which has more than 40,000 followers, to delete the video.
“It’s vile, fake, irresponsible, and not at all reflective of what my father would say,” she said in a post on X. “And you gave no thought to our family.”
It’s unclear if the video, which teases “Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream and if he could speak today …,” was officially produced and or sanctioned by the Trump campaign. @MAGAResource deleted it as of Tuesday morning.
Much of the text lifts almost directly from the Republican nominee.
It begins with footage of Dr. King speaking, his words dubbed by an actor doing a barely passable impression.
We’ve been told again and again that we cannot vote for the man that did more for the Black community than any other president,” the actor portraying King says.
“We’ve been used by the Democrats for decades,” it continues. “We’ve supported the party of slavery and Jim Crow, supported the party of the Ku Klux Klan.”
The video uses familiar Trump boogeymen — migrants who came to the U.S. illegally, Hunter Biden, transgendered Americans — forgetting King was not one to demonize or scapegoat.
Reaction on X was almost universally negative.
“You’re a terrible person for this, by the way,” wrote one commenter. “Deepfaking MLK is diabolical work,” wrote another.
Trump has a history of racist rhetoric. He called for the execution of “the Central Park Five” and refused to back down when the young men were exonerated. He defended racist protesters in Charlottesville, proposed a “Muslim ban,” referred to African nations as “shithole countries,” and accused Haitian immigrants of eating pets.
Yet somehow, he seems poised to increase his share of the Black vote, particularly among young Black men, since his inaugural run for the presidency in 2016.
One recent poll of young adults 18-40 found that 58 percent of Black men said they’d support Vice President Kamala Harris if the election were held today, and 26 percent said they’d vote for Trump.
But that momentum appears to have hit a brick wall. According to the final national NBC News poll of the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump received only 9 percent of Black support, three points lower than he received in 2020.
