What does Donald Trump know — or care — about American Blacks’ needs and/or political priorities?
In 2016, candidate Donald Trump declared that if he became president, “at the end of four years, I guarantee you that I will get over 95 percent of the African-American vote.” After being elected with 8 percent of the black vote, Trump tweeted that his approval ratings with Blacks “has doubled.” Actually, President Trump has a 4 percent approval rating among black voters and, according to Gallup, has tumbled from 15 percent approval among black voters a year ago to 6 percent now.
How has the U.S. economy actually performed in 12 months of the Trump era? Actually, Trump has reason to boast regarding the economy, rising stock market valuations — S&P 500 index of the leading 500 American companies is up around 22 percent, equating to an increase of about $4 trillion. Trump also claims to have boosted U.S. employment through his exhortations for manufacturers to repatriate off-shore jobs to American soil. Since he won the vote, the U.S. economy has added an average of 167,000 new jobs each month and the unemployment rate has dipped to just 4.1 per cent.
So, who’s talking to about Trump to Blacks? Trump has a perfectly respectable job-creation record, but who’s telling Blacks about that? Cleveland’s Rev. Darrell Scott is the “head man” in the circle of Blacks supporting Trump and his agenda, serving as CEO of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump. He is a co-founder, along with Trump campaign spokesman Michael Dean Cohen, of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump. The National Diversity Coalition was formed to provide specific minority groups’ support for candidate Trump. Bruce LeVell, also a co-founder, was a contender for appointment to head the Small Business Administration.
Members of The Diversity Coalition label it as “a volunteer organization” made up from minority communities of religious, business and politics. Members serve as an “inner circle” of minorities that support Trump. LeVell, a Black Republican, serves as executive director. Other Coalition membership groups are: Hispanic Patriots for Trump, Sikh Americans for Trump and Minorities for Trump.
The guy that created the group is Cohen. Cohen was executive vice president of the Trump Organization. Cohen was in the Trump’s business operations as co-president of Trump Entertainment and member of the board of the Eric Trump Foundation. Cohen set the bar for tolerating Trump’s idiosyncrasies in his defense of Trump against charges of anti-Semitism.
Scott met Donald Trump in 2011 after being invited to a meeting at Trump Tower, when Trump was considering the run. After Trump announced his candidacy, Scott was one of the first African-American pastors to support him and was instrumental in getting other African-American pastors to attend meetings.
As the coalition’s executive director, LeVell has elected to spend his time repeatedly declaring Trump is not racist, instead of pointing strategies out to him that help Blacks and convert their business and political thinking.
We ask Mr. LeVell: What have you got to lose by ceasing defense of Trump’s bigoted acts?
William Reed is publisher of “Who’s Who in Black Corporate America” and available for projects via Busxchng@his.com.