Donald Trump offers message to black voters in immigrant-weary Detroit: ‘Taking your jobs’
Former President Donald Trump received strong support during a campaign stop in immigrant-weary Detroit Saturday — where he also coined the nickname “King of super predators” for Joe Biden.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee focused on black voters — emphasizing the migrant crisis while speaking at a policy and awareness roundtable at 180 Church in Detroit’s inner city.
“They’re coming for your jobs. And it’s terrible. … The black community is being hurt most by illegal aliens. They’re coming into your communities and they’re taking your jobs,” Trump told the crowd, which earned him a hefty round of applause.
Although not officially a sanctuary city, Detroit has been overwhelmed by a stream of migrants similar to how Chicago and New York City have been inundated.
At the event, Trump launched his “Black Americans for Trump” coalition to rival a similar group the Biden-Harris campaign sunk millions into, which Trump framed as an attempt to win over a block of voters Biden had historically wronged.
Trump claimed President Biden would be a threat to black Americans, citing his role in authoring the 1994 crime bill that ramped up policing and imprisonment.
“He walks around now talking about the black vote — he’s the ‘king of the super predators,’” Trump said.
“He wrote the 1994 crime bill that you all talk about so much, I guess everybody here knows about that, especially if you happen to be black.”
The Detroit crowd warmly welcomed Trump, especially when the ex-president promised to quell the migrant crisis.
Immigration is a top issue for US voters, as well as a struggling economy and public safety, according to the Pew Research Center.
Trump reiterated his commitment to securing the border later Saturday while addressing the “People’s Convention” of Turning Point Action, telling crowds he’d be a president who “throws radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country and gets them out fast.”
“They’re pouring in at levels that nobody’s ever seen before, and we’re going to pay a big price,” he said.
“On day one of my new administration, we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history. We have no other choice. This is not sustainable,” he added, sending the crowd into a fury of applause and “USA” chants.
“Black people aren’t offered free houses, clothes or free medicine,” Michaelah Montgomery from Atlanta, Georgia told The Post. “These are things they get for getting away with a crime. Not us, that’s for sure.”
Attendee Bishop Leon Benjamin agreed: “The black community is about unity. Issues like this bring wedges into that community.”
Republican Congressman John James, the only black congressperson representing Michigan, introduced Trump, telling crowds that, “The way we make America Great Again is to make the Black middle class strong again.
“The way we get ahead is to stop losing elections. The way we stop losing elections is to get both parties to listen,” he added.
Former Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson also rallied the crowds, saying he was unafraid of “people trying to cancel me” for his support of Trump.
“People have this perception of Trump as a racist and nasty man … but I’ve gotten to know him and it’s not true,” Carson said to a standing ovation.
Terrence Williams of Detroit perhaps summed it up best by saying simply to The Post: “Blacks are Americans and Americans come first.”
