WASHINGTON — Donald Trump warned during his debate with Joe Biden and again at a rally on Friday that migrants are taking “black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs” from Americans, angering critics who called it a racist and insulting attempt to broaden his appeal beyond his white conservative base.
During President Joe Biden’s breakout debate performance on Thursday night caused widespread concern among fellow Democrats about his willingnessTrump also repeatedly made false claims and repeated conspiracy theories that he has long spread during his campaign.
Trump suggested without evidence that Democrats want immigrants to displace Americans as voters, and he described the state of the nation under Biden as worse than during the deadly 2017 neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump has often downplayed the racist undertones of the marchwho once said there were “fine people on both sides.”
Trump’s description of a country on the brink of collapse, besieged by rampant migration and ravaged by racial unrest and economic chaos, is reminiscent of his years of rhetoric about the state of the US. pessimistic view That has long appealed to the Republican Party’s largely white, far-right base, but has also alienated other Americans, especially voters of color.
“The fact is, his great killing of black people is the millions of people he’s allowed to come in through the border. They’re taking black people’s jobs right now,” Trump said during the debate on CNN. “They’re taking jobs from black people and they’re taking jobs from Hispanics. And you haven’t seen it yet, but you’re going to see something that will be the worst in our history,” he warned, without specifying the danger.
But Trump and his allies I believe such rhetoric can have more appeal to the Black and Hispanic communities. dissatisfied with Biden’s performance in office this year. Trump repeated the comments at a rally Friday in Virginia.
The phrase “black jobs” was widely condemned by Democrats and black leaders as vague and offensive.
“I still wonder what a ‘black job’ is,” Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison joked during a news conference with former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in Atlanta on Friday. Other prominent Biden allies, including Rep. Jasmine CrockettD-Tx., Rep. Bennie ThompsonD-Miss., and Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., also condemned Trump’s words after the debate.
“There is no such thing as a black job. That misinformed characterization is a denial of the ubiquity of black talent. We are doctors, lawyers, schoolteachers, police officers, firefighters. The list goes on,” said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP. “A ‘black job’ is an American job. It is troubling that a presidential candidate would make a distinction that does not exist. But the divisive nature of this comment is not surprising coming from Donald Trump.”
Trump’s allies responded to the criticism, saying they missed the president’s broader message.
“He meant black people’s jobs. And we’ve been using that term for a while,” said Diante Johnson, president of the Black Conservative Federation. “It’s every job. Instead of black people having unlimited access to all types of jobs, illegal immigrants are taking their jobs away.”
Much economic research shows that immigration has contributed to increased employment, an article from 2024 by economists Alessandro Caiumi and Giovanni Peri, who found that immigration had a positive effect on the wages of less-educated workers born in the United States between 2000 and 2019. Still, separate research have suggested that greater immigration has negatively affected the wages of less educated black men, although this was one of several factors.
Asked to clarify what Trump meant by describing a “black job” during an interview with NBC News, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is Black and is being considered to be Trump’s vice presidential nominee, dodged the question and instead discussed homeless veterans.
Some black adults think immigration could hurt job opportunities for workers already here. About 4 in 10 black adults say it’s a “great risk” that the number of jobs available to American workers will decline when immigrants come to the U.S. — whether they arrive legally or illegally — according to a March AP-NORC poll. But the poll also found that about 3 in 10 black adults think it’s a big benefit that immigrants take jobs that Americans don’t want.
In some communities, such as Chicago, increased numbers of immigrants have led to greater economic unrest concerns that public resources are not distributed fairlyYet 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 been at the forefront of mitigating potential conflict between communities of color and undocumented immigrants over issues like jobs.
For some black activists, the comments did little to change 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) means taking quality jobs.”
“We have a responsibility to tell the story about the benefits of diversity, rather than the fears of it. And the idea that these people are going to take you away is a message that just creates fear, rather than asking, How do we all win?” Blake added. “When you embrace all races, we all win. We can’t let fear of the past override the prosperity of the future, because we can all win.”