President Donald Trump's early support from Black Americans has cratered just a year later, according to a new analysis.
The 79-year-old president garnered more support from Black voters in 2024 than any GOP presidential candidate in decades, and nearly one in three Black Americans approved of his job performance in his first weeks back in the White House, but that favorability has plunged to as low as 13 percent last month and he's currently hovering around the lows he hit just before losing the 2020 election, reported the Washington Post.
"Where did Black MAGA go?" wondered Post columnist Theodore R. Johnson. "The declining numbers don’t just signal that the president is losing voters; they show that MAGA’s appeal to Black Americans stems less from affection, partisan identity or loyalty to Trump."
The president's support among Black Americans, the columnist wrote, required him to implement policies they can point to with pride and offer a sense of belonging to a movement that makes up for racial differences within it, while also protecting them from other Black Americans and mistrustful MAGA backers.
"A year later, however, the honeymoon is over," Johnson wrote. "Black supporters sought prosperity and governance, but the Trump administration has mostly delivered chaos; they needed belonging but found hostility."
Trump's second year on the job finds the Black unemployment rate near recession levels at 7.2 percent, nearly twice as high as the white unemployment rate, while federal workforce cuts has disproportionately hurt Black workers, and the president has broken almost every campaign promise he made to Black voters.
"His Black supporters typically hold hard-line stances on immigration, but the violent and chaotic manner of the deportation operations leaves nothing to defend," Johnson wrote. "Like most of MAGA, many Black voters who backed Trump expected an exit from foreign entanglements and to reap dividends from a bustling economy — they’re getting neither. His presidency has lurched from capricious tariff policy to repeated government shutdowns to indifference regarding long-standing security agreements."
Black voters were willing to give Trump a shot at a second term, but Johnson said it appears most of them already regret their choice.
"Trump began Black History Month this year not by holding another White House celebration, but by posting a racist video to social media of Barack and Michelle Obama," Johnson wrote. "When paired with immigration agents’ violence toward citizens, high costs of living and a government unconcerned with the will of the people, whatever love remains in the air isn’t enough to keep a substantial number of Black voters in the MAGA coalition."