President Trump continues to show improvement among African-Americans, but the NAACP Tuesday called him a racist.
In fact, in a new poll released by the group today, Trump’s approval rating among blacks has reached 21 percent, more than double what it was in an April Reuters poll.
But in its analysis, the NAACP slammed Trump and even went as far as claiming that Trump is setting race relations back, a charge that echoes recent media criticism of the president for slamming hoops star LeBron James.
The NAACP said in its poll analysis, “Voters across all racial and ethnic groups believe Trump is setting race relations back. Three quarters of African-Americans, Latinos and Asian-Americans believe Trump is setting race relations back while a small majority of white voters believe so. Black women (89 percent), in particular, feel disrespected by President Trump.”
[Related: CNN's Don Lemon: Trump 'traffics in racism and is fueled by bullying']
It also said that support for Trump aired by music mogul Kanye West and former basketball star Dennis Rodman have hurt Trump. That is counter to what Trump and other polls have found.
Said NAACP: “Trump’s strategy of trotting out black people to support him is not working, if it is intended to inspire African-American support for him or his policies. Black celebrities like Kanye West or Dennis Rodman who support Trump do not help Trump’s support among African-American voters. To the contrary, more than three times as many black voters say that black celebrities speaking on Trump’s behalf makes them less interested in listening to or supporting Trump’s ideas than black voters who say it would make them more open to listening to or supporting Trump’s ideas. A majority of black voters say these celebrities have no impact.”
A fact check done by USA Today in May when Trump heralded their support said that the positive comments by West and Rodman did help Trump, at least among black men.
USA Today said:
In the NAACP poll, 21 percent of blacks approve of the president, up 3.5 percent over the Reuters poll, and his disapproval is 79 percent.
That is higher than the 14 percent approval among blacks that the latest Pew Research Center poll found.
And that 21 percent is far higher than the 8 percent of the vote Trump received in 2016, or the 6 percent Republican Mitt Romney received in 2012.
Still, Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and CEO, said, “Our analysis shows President Trump’s racism is a major factor in both why and how people will vote in the midterm elections. The poll confirms how Trump’s racism has not only divided the nation and polluted policy, but also serves as a key factor in motivating voters of color to disrupt politics as usual on a national scale.”
[Also read: Roy Blunt insists Republican Party isn't 'anti-black' in face of Trump insults]
