Another Trump mission in mendacity
Desperate to improve his status with Black voters, Trump dropped into the 180 Church in Detroit on Saturday, a day after his 78th birthday, with the hope of convincing the congregation—and perhaps 180 is representative of the size of the congregation—that he’s the candidate they should choose in November. According to several reports, it was another mission in mendacity with him claiming to be the best president Black folks have had since Abraham Lincoln.
The church, on Detroit’s west side, offers no denomination on its website, other than “The Church is God’s solution to complex problems of Urban America.” To Trump’s way of thinking, it was a perfect place to hold a roundtable over the weekend and to dispense his manna, dripping with interposition and nullification, to recall Dr. King;s famous dictum. As usual, Trump inflated the numbers, never noting that half those in attendance were white, nor suspending his claim that Biden’s victory four years ago was a stolen election.
His session at the church was the first of two events in the city, and the second one in downtown Detroit was more reflective of his white following and overflowing with MAGA-dorned worshipers. Even so, there was no difference in the lies he fulminated: He launched into his rhetoric of misinformation about Black people losing their jobs to an “invasion” of immigrants. He repeatedly bashed the Biden administration and its “left-wing ideology.”
Curiously, Trump’s new voter coalition includes Kwame Kilpatrick, Detroit’s former mayor, free from prison after serving time for fraud and racketeering convictions, giving them a common experience. Sharing the rostrum with Trump was Lorenzo Sewell, the church’s pastor, and Byron Donalds, a Trump vice-president hopeful. The Rev. Wendell Anthony, leader of the NAACP’s chapter, said that Trump “did not articulate any policy. He articulated the fact that he wanted to come and get some Black votes.”
In response to Trump’s visit, the Biden campaign released a statement from Rev. James Perkins of Detroit, blasting Trump for having “the nerve to waltz into our city and act like he wants to understand the struggles Black Detroiters face, but the reality is he doesn’t care. Every time Trump opens his mouth to talk to Black folks, he demonizes us, insults us, and makes empty promises he’ll never keep.”
One reality that is clear to Trump: Biden won Detroit by nearly 95 percent in 2020, and no number of lies can dispel this fact.
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