During President Trump’s appearance on a nationally televised Town Hall forum held recently at the U.S. Constitution Center in Philadelphia, he engaged in the ‘Big Lie’ – that propaganda technique linked with Hitler’s Nazi regime.
Trump spun Big Lies of varying size on topics ranging from health care to racial hatred throughout that Q-&-A session broadcast from the specialized museum located two blocks from historic Independence Hall where America’s Declaration of Independence and its Constitution were both adopted.
One of the more repugnant pieces of propaganda oozed by self-declared white nationalist Trump during that Town Hall was Trump’s declaration that he’s “done more” for Black Americans than any U.S. President.
Remember, just a dozen days before that Town Hall declaration Trump executed yet another despicable act against Blacks.
This time Trump undermined efforts within the federal government to mitigate prejudice that too frequently impedes progress by Blacks. Trump banned training programs devised to reduce racist practices within federal agencies. Those anti-racism programs, Trump’s administration inaccurately asserted, perpetrate “anti-American propaganda.”
Also, when judging Trump on his appointment of powerful federal appeals court judges, clear-&-convincing evidence proves the ‘I’ve done more for Blacks’ Trump has done far less for Blacks than his seven predecessors that included four Republicans. The 53 new appellate judges selected by Trump include NO Blacks.
Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, is often quoted for his declaration that, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Trump hopes his Big Lie about helping Blacks will help lead voters to believe he is not the brazen bigot his actions confirm.
It’s important to note what Goebbels also noted: “…truth is the mortal enemy of the lie…”
Eight years before Goebbels birth in 1897, an American government worker is credited for a phrase applicable to Trump’s declarations about his efforts for Blacks: Figures never lie but liars figure! The truth about Trump’s record on Blacks does not back Trump’s boasts about Blacks.
Philadelphia is a city where the poverty rate for Blacks is more than double the rate for whites. Philadelphia’s over-all poverty level only lessened around one percent during Trump’s presidency. Trump crows that he created the best economy ever anywhere. But figures show irrefutably that Trump’s economy helped few Philadelphians mired in poverty.
Infant mortality – another indicator of impoverishment in Philadelphia – also evidences the Big Lie of Pro-Life preening President Trump doing more for Blacks. In Philadelphia Black babies are more that “three times more likely” to die before their first birthday than white babies according to 2019 report from Philadelphia’s Department of Health. Additionally, Black babies in Philadelphia lead in low weight births and pre-term births – more attributes of impoverishment that did not abate during Trump’s presidency.
Trump’s inaccurate, insulting declaration about doing more for Blacks came inside the Constitution Center, a congressionally sanctioned edifice targeted by repeated protests during its construction phase over a dozen years ago. Those demonstrations protested the purposeful exclusion of non-white workers and non-white businesses from that construction project.
Reality – Mr. Businessman Trump doesn’t really give a rusty damn about ensuring Blacks get equal opportunity access in business.
Less than seven months before Trump’s September 2020 ban on anti-racism training programs, he instituted a major but little noticed action against Blacks. Trump built a wall that blocked participation of Black businesses from the billions the federal government spends to fight the COVID Pandemic. In mid-March, Trump waived all equal opportunity obligations for federal “supply, service and construction contracts.” Trump eliminated those obligations enacted to brake barriers blocking Blacks from federal contracting opportunities.
More evidence of Trump’s Big Lie on boosting the lives of Blacks is evident in key indicators in key cities roiled by police brutality in 2020. Abusive policing, that ravages Blacks disproportionally, is rooted in institutional racism. Yet, reality TV star Trump defiantly rejects the reality of racism in policing.
Minneapolis, Minnesota is the city where the police murder of George Floyd, on May 25, 2020, sparked protests against police brutality across America and around the world.
Minneapolis is the city with one of the largest racial income inequality gaps in America. The median income for Blacks in Minneapolis is $46,281 less than whites. Blacks comprise 25.4 percent of Minneapolis residents who live in poverty. Given the high levels of poverty and income inequality, it’s apparent Blacks in Minneapolis haven’t gotten more from Trump’s presidency.
Trump traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, the city where seven bullets from a policeman’s gun paralyzed Jacob Blake on August 23rd. Trump said nothing while in Wisconsin’s fourth largest city about the fact that nearly 33 percent of Blacks in Kenosha live in poverty and 15.7 percent are unemployed.
Trump, who declined to meet with Blake or Blake’s family, refused to acknowledge evidence of institutional racism in Kenosha where Blacks comprise 11 percent of the population. That evidence includes only nine blacks among 216 police officers (4.1%), three blacks among 153 firefighters (1.96%) plus only one percent of the contracts issued by the City for goods-&-services awarded to Black owned businesses.
Institutional racism in Louisville, Kentucky is evident in poverty rates and in the outcome of the grand jury investigation into the Friday March 13th fatal shooting by police of Breonna Taylor. Thirty percent of Louisville Blacks live in poverty. That grand jury declined homicide charges directly connected to the death of Taylor despite each of the three policemen involved in that fatal incident having records of complaints for abusive misconduct.
Trump praised the Kentucky Attorney General (an African American) who mangled the investigation into Taylor’s death. The same day of Trump’s Big Lies in Philadelphia, the City of Louisville settled a lawsuit filed by Taylor’s family for $12-million dollars that included overdue reforms in police practices.
Trump avoids acknowledgement about truths in Louisville, Kenosha, Minneapolis and Philadelphia because he (or his handlers) understands the truth in an observation of Joseph Goebbels: “There is no need for propaganda to be rich in intellectual content.”
Trump, when asked about the issue of racism in America during that Town Hall in Philadelphia, said absurdly that he hoped “there’s not a race problem” before another ridiculous declaration that “I can tell you, there’s none with me.”
Trump set a presidential mark of telling over 20,000 false or misleading claims [lies] in the 44-months from his inauguration in January 2017 to that Town Hall appearance in Philadelphia.
Yes, lying is what Trump does.
Ironically, certified liar Trump is not lying with his often-spewed declaration of having done “more” for Blacks than any of his Oval Office predecessors.
However, the critical fact fogged by Trump’s Big Lie is this: he’s done more against Blacks than he’s done for Blacks.