Who does the former guy think he’s fooling? On Friday night in a speech his team said was meant to appeal to Black voters in South Carolina—a demographic with which the Republican party continuously fails to gain traction, according to The Nation—he compared himself to us in the most absurd way.
He cited the 91 felony charges he currently faces, and then compared them to unfair treatment Black folks face from the American criminal justice system. “A lot of people said that’s why the Black people liked me, because they had been hurt so badly and discriminated against,” the Washington Post reported him saying in the speech at the Black Conservative Federation’s annual awards gala. The comment got laughter and cheers from the audience.
Suggested Reading
He stuck his foot in further, citing the Georgia mug shot from last summer as a reason Black voters would choose him come November. He then claimed he’d pardoned many people in the room of 500 before asking Black supporters in the room to stand. After repeated entreaties raised only one such person, he joked, “The lights are so bright in my eyes I … can only see the Black ones. I can’t see any White ones.”
Threads user @ronaldfilipkowski pointed out the obvious reason for the lone supporter: “Wait, I thought this was supposed to be a group of ‘Black Conservatives?’ I see a bunch of white people.”
TikTok user @beto.media posted clips of the speech and said something similar: “Before a mostly white crowd at what was called the Black Conservative Federation Gala.”
South Carolina Republican party chair Drew McKissick defended the remarks, according to reporting by Raw Story. “If at this point, everyone doesn’t know the way Donald Trump speaks and has spoken since he came on the scene 2015 then they haven’t been in this country very long. Those black conservatives who are engaged n our party, who support the president, they invited him to come be there, and I’m sure enjoyed having him there last night.”
BlueSky user @JaxMax responded, “Ya he talks like that because he is a racist .. pretty simple.”
Indeed. We know his performance art is clearly designed for the white folks in Friday night’s audience, no matter what spin Repugs try to put on it.
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.