Donald Trump ventured on Saturday where few Republican presidential candidates tread – the city of Detroit, attending a community forum as part of a push to peel Black voters from President Joe Biden ahead of November’s election.
Trump’s appearance at a Black church drew a mix of curious local residents and die-hard supporters, but little in the way of protest.
Both Trump and Biden, a Democrat, have targeted Michigan as a must-win state where every vote may make a difference, and the Trump campaign argues an opportunity exists to win over Black voters, particularly men, who may be attracted to the former president’s economic and border-security policies.
But Detroit is also a place Trump denigrated four years ago as “corrupt” as he argued the 2020 election results there could not be trusted.
At the 180 Church on the west side of the city, Trump sat on stage at a table flanked by a panel of members of the local community, including small-business owners and activists. The event was moderated by U.S. Representative Byron Donalds of Florida, a contender to be Trump’s vice-presidential pick.
Trump focused on his core messages, blasting the Biden administration over high inflation, crime and illegal migration, which he said has harmed Black Americans in particular.
“They’re coming into your community, and they’re taking your jobs,” Trump said, without presenting evidence. “We have to get them out.”
Trump said crime was “most rampant here, in African-American communities,” adding that the “Black population wants law enforcement more than any other."
He also vowed to revitalize the local auto industry in Detroit by slapping tariffs on vehicles built in Mexico and elsewhere.
The church’s senior pastor, Lorenzo Sewell, credited Trump for showing up by comparing him to Barack Obama, America’s first Black president.
“President Obama never came to the ‘hood,” Sewell said. “So, thank you.”
Wearing a “Make Black America Great Again” T-shirt, Sewell spent time in the hours before the event directing and helping visitors find parking in the hardscrabble neighbourhood that surrounds the church.
The event felt unlike a typical Trump rally. While some fervent, MAGA cap-adorned supporters waited for hours to get in, the line numbered in the hundreds, not thousands, and some attendees said they had just happened upon the scene by chance.
Angelo Brown, 61, of southwest Detroit, said he wanted to come see Trump “close up” and was undecided between Biden and Trump.
“I’m still listening,” Brown said. “I want more of a focus on America, our school system, the medical system."
"I'd like to see them fix the immigration problem and not just bicker about it," he said.
Tamika Markham, 46, of Detroit, said she was open to voting for Trump. “You never know,” she said.
“We are just getting by,” Markham said of her and her teenage son. “It’s hard for a lot of people. I see a lot of people struggling.”
Not everyone in the neighbourhood was happy to see Trump.
Mae Thomas rolled down the window of her SUV as she drove by the scene outside the church and said she was a life-long Democrat and would be voting for Biden.
A quick visit to Detroit by Trump wouldn’t persuade her, Thomas said. He had not done anything for her community as president.
Black Americans have been credited with helping Biden secure the White House in 2020. Yet, recent polls have suggested some slippage of support among Black voters, who historically have been viewed as the Democratic Party’s most loyal voting bloc.