Speaking to a group of Black conservatives in solidly Republican South Carolina last spring, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump characterized himself in starkly racial terms. “Would you rather have the Black president or the White President?” Trump asked the cheering crowd, before concluding “I think they want the White guy.”
The edited video segment is being promoted by the Kamala Harris campaign presently, as Harris targets potentially wavering Black voters during the campaign’s final weeks. Interestingly, Trump made the comment long before Harris, who is of African American heritage, became the Democratic nominee. When Trump made the comment he was using race to distinguish himself from his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, also of African American heritage.
[NOTE: Trump made the racial distinction between him and his Black rival while emphasizing a subtext that race — when it came time to vote — was an insignificant factor compared to financial considerations, boasting that as President he had lowered costs.]
Trump: Would you rather have the Black president or the white president? I think they want the white guy pic.twitter.com/NbGPrFAs5M
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 14, 2024
At the time, Trump was addressing Black voters at the Black Conservative Federation’s Honors Gala just before the all-important GOP South Carolina primary, which he won handily.
There Trump made a notable edit to his catchphrase ‘Make America Great Again’, saying he didn’t know if it was applicable to African Americans, a tacit acknowledgment that the world that much of his following wishes to return to was not a world in which Black Americans enjoyed equality or equal rights.
Trump acknowledged the problem with his slogan when it comes to the Black community, saying “I’m not sure if I can say necessarily ‘again’ in this case — for African Americans we’re going to make America great for all of our country.”
Though the instance the Harris campaign is amplifying didn’t directly refer to Harris, Trump has made waves speaking about Harris’s race on other occasions, characterizing the former California Attorney General and United States Senator as a “dumb” beneficiary of DEI policies that promote people on the basis of identity, instead of merit.
During an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in July, Trump said of Harris: “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. 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. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”