Former President Donald Trump has had a challenging week with Black voters, a change in his fortunes after earlier polling showed the GOP presidential nominee making gains with a demographic long believed to be a Democratic stronghold.
But Trump’s Black voter gains appeared precarious after President Joe Biden made way for Vice President Kamala Harris to top the Democratic ticket in 2024 — and then Trump took another hit, at least temporarily, after he questioned Harris’s racial identity in an interview this week during a NABJ conference for Black journalists.
Inviting an uproar, Trump claimed of Harris: “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black.”
The statement about who qualifies as Black came on the heels of Trump’s assertion, during the first presidential debate, that there were “Black jobs” in America — and that “Black jobs” were the ones most at risk due to increased immigration.
With people like Olympics host Mike Tirico, SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas, former RNC chair Michael Steele, Vice President Kamala Harris, and astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson — as well as millions of others — all having such different occupations, while also identifying as Black, Trump’s statement was slammed as derogatory and as the product of a man with a limited understanding of contemporary America.
Olympics superstar Simone Biles, a Black woman and perhaps the most distinguished athlete on earth, seemed to joyfully join those who saw Trump’s “Black jobs” designation as backwards. As Biles celebrated her most recent gold medal-winning performance, she tweeted, tongue firmly in cheek, “I love my Black job.”
We love you @Simone_Biles!#GOAT https://t.co/jSYOR4fuiJ
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) August 2, 2024
U.S. Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA) relished and amplified the post, calling Biles the GOAT — for her athletic accomplishments and her political social media savvy.