President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner drew sharp criticism on Monday after he said Black people need to “want to be successful” in order for the administration’s policies to help them.
“One thing we’ve seen in a lot of the Black community, which is mostly Democrat, is that President Trump’s policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they’re complaining about,” Kushner said on “Fox & Friends” Monday morning. “But he can’t want them to be successful more than they want to be successful.”
The statement was quickly picked up and spread on social media by an official Democratic Party accounts, which focused on Kushner apparently implying that some Black Americans do not want to be successful.
Others focused on how Kusher’s comments were laughable given his inherited wealth and other advantages most humans, let alone Black Americans, do not enjoy.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany blamed “internet trolls” for amplifying the comments and said “President Trump accomplished what Democrats merely talked about.”
Kushner’s comments come as Trump’s support among Black men has risen even as Trump has called for violent action against Black Lives Matter protesters and tried to regain support with white suburban women by claiming that if he loses “no income housing” and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker will come to their towns.
Kushner echoed his father-in-law but stopped short of saying Black Lives Matter protesters were the real racists when he touched on months of civil unrest spurred by the murder of George Floyd in May.
“You saw a lot of people who were just virtue signaling,” he said. “They go on Instagram and cry or they would put a slogan on their jersey or write something on a basketball court and quite frankly that was doing more to polarize the country than it was to bring people forward.”
While support for Black Lives Matter has slipped in public polling since last June, it has retained very high levels of support among the Black community.
Meanwhile, as early voting turnout has surged throughout the country, Trump’s modest gains among Black men might not amount to much given a September Gallup poll found that 87% of Black Americans disapproved of him and he has lost support elsewhere in the electorate.
