Throughout President Trump’s administration, the liberal media has regaled us incessantly with the same old story they’ve used for years: that Democrats are the party of minorities and Republicans the party of racist whites.
But in the 2020 election, that story fell apart. Donald Trump got more votes from Black and minority Americans than any other GOP candidate in the last 60 years; in some parts of the country, like Florida, Trump even outperformed Biden with Latinos and Cuban-Americans by historic margins.
These numbers don’t lie: Black and minority Americans have started to realize that Trump and the GOP have the better track record on actually improving minority lives. We see this most of all in how Trump has done more than any Democrat to bring Black Americans home from prison.
For decades, incarceration and unemployment have been the two biggest impediments to the Black community. They are interlinked; the poverty-to-prison pipeline has been well established (one study found that incarcerated people had a median annual income that was 41% less than non-incarcerated people of similar ages). And formerly incarcerated people are unemployed at a rate that is higher than the U.S. unemployment rate has ever been in history.
Blacks are disproportionately represented in prisons and among the unemployed. In 2017, Blacks made up 12 percent of the U.S. adult population but represented a third of the prison population. And today, the gap between black and white unemployment is the widest it has been in five years.
Criminal justice reform, combined with an economic stimulus, will be a key means of narrowing this gap over the next several years. And it’s President Trump, rather than Biden, who has enacted undeniable change in these areas:
Before COVID-19, under President Trump, the unemployment rates for African Americans were the lowest they have ever been. The White House has said it plans to lower the unemployment rate for formerly incarcerated individuals to “single digits within five years.”
Education is a critical factor in keeping Black Americans out of prison and employed. In December 2019, the president signed legislation that gave $255 million of permanent annual funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
The First Step Act, signed into law in 2018, has reduced the sentences of thousands of drug offenders. In the first year, over 3,000 inmates were released, 91% of whom were Black. The First Step Act has eliminated the “three strikes” life sentencing for many offenses and has expanded rehabilitation programs and job programs for formerly incarcerated individuals.
President Trump awarded $2.2 million to states to incentivize the hiring of former prisoners. The Bureau of Prisons also now helps inmates apply for government assistance when they are released.
Under President Trump’s Platinum Plan, Black communities will have access to $500 billion of increased capital, and 3 million new jobs and 500,000 Black businesses will be created.
The liberal media always has and always will shower Biden and Harris with praise for their inclusive rhetoric and speeches. But it’s the Republican party that has actually supported Black Americans over the years. The first Black American to serve in the U.S. Senate was a Republican (Sen. Hiram Revels of Mississippi), and from 1870 to 1935, the only Black men who served in the House of Representatives were Republicans. This election, twenty-seven Black Republican candidates ran Congress.
The left has perpetuated the lie that President Trump, and the Republican Party, are against Black Americans. In reality, the president’s actions show deep care for Black communities and an effective agenda for increasing economic security among Black Americans – which is strongly tied to keeping Black men and women out of prison.
The media circus around Biden and Harris will continue over in the days to come, but don’t be fooled: Black Americans were better off under President Trump than they would ever be under Joe Biden.
Timothy Head is the executive director for the Faith & Freedom Coalition.
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