Donald Trump Thanks Kanye West For Helping Double His Approval Rating Among African-Americans
Donald Trump’s approval rating among African-Americans showed an increase this week, and the president believes that rapper Kanye West is to thank for it.
After a week in which the controversial rapper expressed his continued support for the president, Trump touted a numbers that showed an uptick in his approval among African-American men, a group that overall represents his lowest support. As Esquire noted, Trump gave a shoutout to Kanye during his address to the NRA convention.
“Kanye West must have some power because you probably saw I doubled my African American poll numbers. We went from 11 to 22 in one week,” said Trump.
“Thank you, Kanye. Thank you. When I saw the number, I said, ‘That must be a mistake. How can that have happened?’ Even the pollsters thought that must be a mistake.”
But Donald Trump got some of the major details wrong. The poll that Trump appears to be citing, one from Reuters/Ipsos, Trump’s approval rating improved from 11 percent to 22 percent among African-American men, not all African-American voters. But the Washington Post had some serious problems with that poll. The report noted that the methodology is shaky at best, and that Trump’s true level of support among all African-American voters has shown to be much lower. A study from Pew Research from 2014 showed that the particular sample used in the polling was a bad representation of African-American voters.
And other polls show that the 22 percent support among African-American men could be an anomaly. A Pew Research Center poll released showed that only 13 percent of African-American voters support Trump, and another from Gallup also found 13 percent support among African-Americans.
Kanye West’s support of Donald Trump has been a point of controversy as well. The rapper has taken criticism for his vocal support of the president despite accusations that Trump has stoked racial tensions and ignored concerns of African-Americans.
West drew even more controversy this week when he asserted during an appearance on TMZ Live that black slaves chose to remain in slavery. West later walked back the statements, but he was widely criticized for the view.
“Conservative publications hyped a lonely Reuters poll that showed that President Trump's approval rating among black men had jumped to a slightly-less-abysmal number over the week of Kanye's MAGA-lite paroxysms.” https://t.co/5LyZQbqKv8
— Eugene Scott (@Eugene_Scott) May 5, 2018
Donald Trump has often bragged about his popularity with African-Americans despite it being one of his worst demographics. During the 2016 campaign, Trump said he would be the best candidate for the black community and predicted that by the time he was up for re-election, he would have 95 percent support among this group.
