Trump’s Bizarre Pitch to Black Voters is Martyrdom Marketing

Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on Mar 5, 2024

I expected him to whip out a pair of his recently announced $399 gold Trump sneakers, which look like they were very much designed with the hip-hop crowd in mind. But it’s only February. Give him time. I’m sure we’ll see many more Trump marketing opportunities, if he’s not convicted of something else first.

Come to think of it, perhaps even then.

Predictably, Trump did not go into any detail on the charges he faces such as allegedly mishandling classified information, obstructing justice, conspiring to overturn the 2020 election and falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to a star of adult films.

But Trump drums up sympathy by refusing to run and hide and has maintained prominent Republican supporters in ways that still astound me, even given the cynical world of American politics.

Trump was flanked onstage by such prominent Black Republicans as former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida and, in a speech before Trump’s arrival, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. They all were basking in the man’s orange glow.

The most recent Quinnipiac University poll, published in late February, found President Joe Biden leading handily among Black voters with 79%, as compared with 19% for Trump. Those results were similar to what a January poll yielded. But it’s also true that 19% is far from no Black support at all.

Of course, there’s still time for a lot of new Trump entreaties to Black voters.

I don’t expect we’ll see an admission of guilt or an expression of contrition (or both) become part of the former president’s campaign pitch anytime soon, though.

More’s the pity.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)