I belong to a gym where the membership is heavily black and brown. A couple of years ago, I started wearing “Let’s Go Brandon” T-shirts to some of my workouts. Whenever I did, I could not walk more than a few steps without getting a fist bump. The approval of my insult to President Joe Biden was a preview of what the polls now tell us: Support for former President Donald Trump has surged in black and Hispanic communities.
Ever since Donald Trump came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower nine years ago, racial minorities have been told incessantly that Trump is a racist and a white supremacist. Yet many either haven’t been listening or just don’t like being told what to think. They are increasingly expressing support for Trump — publicly and raucously.
Recent polls show that Hispanic voters favor Trump over Biden for the upcoming presidential election, while black voters, though still supporting Biden by wide margins, prefer Trump at levels not seen for a Republican presidential candidate since President Nixon’s reelection in 1972.
There’s no doubt such support can be attributed to Trump’s policies. Hispanic and black unemployment rates hit record lows during his administration before the Covid-19 lockdowns. Inflation was under control, with average yearly inflation under Trump at 1.9 percent — versus 5.5 percent under the Biden administration. For American households, real net worth increased 16 percent through Trump’s first three years, versus only 0.7 percent through Biden’s first three years.
But there is something else happening. The support for Trump from
