WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump warned during his debate with Joe Biden, and again at a rally on Friday, that migrants were taking “black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs” from Americans, angering his detractors, who described his words as a racist and insulting attempt to win followers beyond his white conservative base.
While President Joe Biden’s shaky performance in Thursday night’s debate raised concerns among fellow Democrats about his competency, Trump also repeatedly made false claims and rehashed conspiracy theories he has long promoted during his campaign.
Trump suggested, without evidence, that Democrats want migrants to displace Americans as voters, and said the country was worse under Biden than it had been at the time of the deadly 2017 neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville. , Virginia. Trump has downplayed the racist overtones of the march, once even saying there were “good people on both sides.”
Trump’s description of a country on the brink, besieged by unfettered migration and wracked by racial strife and economic chaos fits into his usual rhetoric about the state of America. It’s a pessimistic view that has long appealed to the Republican Party’s largely white, right-wing base but has also alienated other Americans, especially nonwhite voters.
“The fact is that his big blow to black people is the millions of people he has allowed to enter through the border,” Trump said during the debate on CNN. “They are taking the jobs of black people and they are taking the jobs of Hispanics. And they haven’t realized it yet, but they are going to see something that will be the worst thing that has happened in our history,” he added, without specifying what he was referring to.
Still, Trump and his allies believe such rhetoric can win more supporters among black and Hispanic communities, which have been dissatisfied with Biden’s performance this year. Trump repeated the comments during a rally Friday in Virginia.
The phrase “jobs for blacks” was widely condemned by Democrats and black leaders as vague and insulting.
“I’m still wondering what a ‘black job’ is,” Jaime Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, joked Friday during a news conference with former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in Atlanta. Other prominent Biden allies also condemned Trump’s words.
“There is no such thing as a job for blacks. This misinformed characterization is a denial of the ubiquity of black talent. We are doctors, lawyers, school teachers, police officers and firefighters. The list is endless,” said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “A ‘black job’ is an American job. It is worrying that a presidential candidate attempts to make a non-existent distinction. But the divisive nature of this comment is not surprising from Donald Trump.”
But Trump supporters rejected the criticism as ignoring the broader context of his message.
“He was referring to black jobs. And we’ve been using that term for a while,” said Diante Johnson, president of the Black Conservative Federation. “It’s any job. Instead of black people having unlimited access to all kinds of jobs, illegal immigrants are taking their jobs away.”
Much economic research shows that immigration has helped increase employment. A 2024 study by economists Alessandro Caiumi and Giovanni Peri found that immigration between 2000 and 2019 had a positive impact on the wages of less educated workers born in the United States. However, other research has indicated that increased immigration may have had a negative impact on the wages of less educated black men, although it was one of several factors.
When asked to clarify what Trump meant by a “black job” during an interview with NBC News, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is black and whose name is being considered as a possible Trump’s running mate, dodged the question, preferring to talk about homeless veterans.
Some black adults do believe there is a chance that immigration could hurt the employment opportunities of workers already in the United States. About 4 in 10 black adults say it is a “significant risk” that the number of jobs available to American workers will be reduced when immigrants come to the United States — whether or not they have permission — according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in March. But the poll also found that about 3 in 10 black adults believe it is a significant benefit to have immigrants fill jobs that Americans don’t want.
In some communities like Chicago, the growing number of immigrants has led to heightened economic anxiety and concerns that public resources are not being allocated fairly. However, black and Hispanic Americans are, on average, more supportive of immigration than other demographic groups, and in cities like Chicago, Denver and New York, racial justice groups have led efforts to mitigate potential conflicts between nonwhite communities and migrants living in the United States illegally over issues like employment.
For some black activists, the comments changed little the state of the presidential race.
Michael Blake, founder and CEO of the Kairos Democracy Project, said, “It’s hard for anyone to believe that (Trump) meant that (immigrants) are filling quality jobs.”
“Therefore, it is our responsibility to tell the story of the benefits of diversity, rather than the fears it raises. And the notion that these people are taking something away from us is just a message of fear, rather than asking how we can all win,” Blake added. “When we open the doors to all races, we all win. We must not allow fear of the past to be an obstacle to prosperity in the future, because we can all win.”
