"The African-American community has been taken for granted for decades by the Democratic Party... If you keep voting for the same people, you will keep getting exactly the same result."
It is in these terms that the Republican President candidate, Donald J. Trump, addressed an all-white audience in Michigan, on August 18, 2016.
He was trying to shift his campaign to appeal to American non-whites, especially Blacks. Donald Trump added that he would receive 95% of the African-American votes, if he wins in 2016 and went on to run for a second term in 2020.
Promising to deliver for African-Americans what the Democrats have promized but failed to produce, Trumpp promised to lift Blacks who "are living in poverty" and educate students stuck because their "schools are no good".
He accused Hillary Clinton of being ready to " rather provide a job to a refugee" than to finding job opportunities for the unemployed black youths, "who have become refugees in their own country".
In a swift response, Hillary clinton qualified Trump's statements as being "so ignorant it's staggering."
Donald Trump's support in the minority, and particularily, African-American communities has been marginal, at best. Most polls show about 2% of black voters say they will vote for Trump. To shore up the support, Trump has surrounding himself with some Black celebrity, including Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault as his campaign director of African-American Outreach. In a PBS Frontline to appear on Sep 27, 2017, Omarosa says that “Donald Trump is running for President because he really, truly believes he can turn the country around . .. More importantly, every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to President Trump.”
Perhaps as a sign of a shift in the campaign, on Wednesday, Mr Trump promoted pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager and hired media executive Stephen Bannon to become his campaign's CEO. The question is now whether it is not too little , too late.
On August 19, 2016, Mr Trump 's campaign announced that Paul Manafort, who led his campaign for the past three months, stepped down. Mr Manafort was criticized in the media for his links to the pro-Russian former Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych
