'The president seemed to place particular emphasis on systematically erasing the legacy of the first Black president; one of his aides printed out a checklist of Obama’s accomplishments to attack them, one by one'
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January 2017, Donald Trump, then the president-elect, welcomed a group of civil rights leaders, led by King’s eldest son, into his office in Trump Tower.
To Trump, this was little more than a photo op: Two former aides recalled that he wanted to be seen with a group of Black leaders to rebut an assertion made by Rep. John Lewis, the late civil rights paragon, who at the time said he did not “see this president-elect as a legitimate president.” And as the 2017 meeting illustrates, many of Trump’s interactions with Black leaders have followed a similar pattern: He has turned opportunities for reconciliation, or even to debate policy differences, into empty-calorie encounters in front of the cameras, according to interviews with more than 30 Black officials, civil rights leaders and former and current administration officials.
At first, some Black leaders seemed open to the president’s entreaties. But they said any chance of meaningful communication with Trump ended, with the finality of a slammed door, when he declared there were “very fine people on both sides” after white supremacists rioted in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017.
“It was a disaster,” said Mukamal. “There was no follow through, and it turned out the opposite of what we could have possibly predicted.” “For decades Democratic leaders have stood behind empty promises when it came to Black Americans,” wrote Smith in an email. “The polices of stagnation and governmental dependence have been dismantled and replaced with economic prosperity and opportunity.”
“I know his type,” Clyburn said in an interview. “He has been as caustic as he can be. Trump insults in public and then makes a private phone call to you to say that is really not what he meant. I have been around those kind of white people all my life.” Trump’s supporters believe that the failure of the Democratic Party to fulfill its promises to Black Americans has created an opening for the president’s unorthodox approach.
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