Donald Trump rebuked by ex-RNC chair over “Black jobs” remarks

Michael Steele, a former Republican National Convention (RNC) chair, called out former President Donald Trump on Saturday for his “Black jobs” remark he made during this week’s presidential debate.

Trump, the presumptive Republican 2024 presidential nominee, and President Joe Biden faced off in the first presidential debate of this election cycle on Thursday evening, with a second scheduled for September, just two months before Election Day. The debate was hosted by CNN in Atlanta and featured no live audience.

“The fact is that his [Biden] big kill on the Black people is the millions of people that he’s allowed to come in through the border. They’re taking Black jobs now,” Trump said during Thursday’s debate. “They’re taking Black jobs and they’re taking Hispanic jobs.”

There is no evidence, however, to suggest hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants are taking jobs that would otherwise go to American citizens.

MSNBC‘s The Weekend, which is co-hosted by Steele, played the clip of Trump’s debate answer discussing illegal immigration and “Black jobs.” Responding to the segment, Steele asked, “So what precisely, what jobs would those Black and Hispanic jobs be, I wonder?”

With input from co-host Symone Sanders-Townsend, Steele, who served as the RNC chair from 2009 to 2011, said, “I guess they’re all what? CEOs and former lawyers, former RNC chairs. What Black jobs are you talking about Mr. Trump?”

He also criticized the former president’s Wednesday call into a Black barbershop in Atlanta in a rally to garner Black votes, “You want to make a play to Black folks, you can’t even show up at a [Black] barbershop…You call into a barbershop, and you’re going to talk to us about Black jobs? Shut the hell up. Why do we even entertain this crazy from this fool?”

On Wednesday, Trump called into the Black American Business Leader Barbershop Roundtable at Rocky’s Barbershop in Atlanta, which was streamed on the Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN). Republican Representative Byron Donalds of Florida, a Trump ally, headed the roundtable talk. Trump discussed the support he is receiving from the Black community, attributing it to his mugshot taken at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia in August 2023.

Trump faces 10 criminal counts in Georgia, along with 14 remaining co-defendants, for allegedly conspiring to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election in the state. He has has pleaded not guilty and says the case is part of a political witch hunt.

On Saturday, Steele went on to explain that he believes Trump’s “Black jobs” comment is in reference to “menial work.”

“That’s what he’s talking about. He’s categorizing the skill set of individuals in this country and he has a view of what we are capable of doing, and nothing more,” Steele added, who also called Trump’s remarks “beyond racist” and “unamerican.”

“There’s no such thing as a Black job or a white job,” Derrick Johnson, CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) told NBC News on Friday in a statement. “They’re hardworking Americans who are seeking to have quality jobs, and that should be the goal of this conversation.”

Meanwhile, Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign spokesperson, told Newsweek in an email Saturday afternoon in response to Steele’s comments: “President Trump was talking about illegal immigrants taking away jobs from Blacks, Hispanics, and all Americans. Michael Steele should shut the hell up and stop embarrassing himself, which is why he no longer has a job in politics.”

Newsweek has reached out to Steele for comment via email Saturday.

While Biden continues to lead among Black voters, support for Trump has been growing in the Black community. In 2016, he received only 8 percent of the Black vote, and 12 percent in 2020.

A New York Times/Siena College poll of 1,226 register voters conducted between June 20 and June 25, revealed 30 percent of the Black people surveyed would vote for Trump and 59 percent for Biden. The poll has a margin error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

This poll indicates an improvement for Trump among Black voters. In an earlier Washington Post/Ipsos poll of 1,331 Black adults conducted between April 9 and April 16, found that 42 percent said they would vote for Biden, while only 4 percent vowed support for Trump and 1 percent for third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Despite his low polling among Black voters, according to FiveThirtyEight’s national aggregator poll, Trump is leading Biden by 0.6 points, as of Saturday morning.

In recent weeks, the Trump and Biden campaigns have stepped up their efforts to court Black voters.

Trump’s campaign recently announced a new coalition, “Black Americans for Trump,” which boasts endorsements from elected officials, athletes, entertainers, community leaders and pastors from the Black community.

The Biden campaign launched a fresh push to win over Black voters with a rally in Philadelphia last month. Biden thanked Black voters for propelling him to the White House in 2020 and ran through a list of his policy achievements that he said improved the lives of Black Americans.