PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP MEETS WITH BLACK CELEBRITIES
PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP MEETS WITH BLACK CELEBRITIES By Lauren Victoria Burke (NNPA Newswire Contributor)
In an effort to show that he plans to be the “president for all Americans”
and to bolster support in the Black community, President-elect Donald
Trump recently met with a number of Black celebrities and businessmen
including rapper Kanye West, billionaire Robert Johnson and NFL Hall of
Famers Jim Brown and Ray Lewis.
Unlike so many other visitors to Trump Tower, Trump greeted West in the
lobby; members of the media snapped pictures and yelled questions.
“We’ve been friends for a long time,” Trump told reporters at the end of
the meeting. “We discussed life.”
With rumors swirling that Trump is having difficulty finding someone
to perform at his January 20, 2017 inaugural, there was unconfirmed
speculation that West may serve as some form of entertainment at an
inaugural event.
In a separate meeting, Trump talked to Brown and Lewis about economic
empowerment in the Black community and urban development. Trump
recently selected famed neurosurgeon and presidential candidate Ben
Carson to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
After the meeting, Brown said that he fell in love with Trump, “because
he really talks about helping African-American, Black people. That’s why
I’m here.”
Brown continued: “When he goes through what he went through to
become the president, he got my admiration, because no one gave him
a chance.”
CNN contributor and former HuffPost Live host Marc Lamont Hill
expressed concerns about Brown’s comments during a recent segment
on the network.
“I don’t have a problem with Jim Brown saying, look, we want to do
urban development,” said Hill. “We want housing. We want to make
demands of you, but to say you ‘fell in love with’ Donald Trump or his
platform or his campaign to me is disturbing.”
Hill added: “That’s not to suggest that Donald Trump didn’t have
any real Black friends. But when [you] look at where his political
commitments and economic investments are, they don’t suggest any
kind of care for the Black community.”
On the same morning of West’s visit the Trump transition team
announced that Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson was selected as Trump’s
nominee for Secretary of State. Tillerson is yet another businessman
with close ties to Russia who has no foreign policy or federal
government experience.
President Obama once called Kanye West a “jackass”; he was also quick
to add that West was talented.
Over the years, Trump has been in the company of several African
American celebrities including Mike Tyson, Don King and Russell
Simmons. Most of those affiliations appear to be related to charity
events and other happenings around New York City.
So far, Trump has selected Steven Mnuchin for Secretary of Treasury;
Elaine Chao for Secretary of Transportation; Wilbur Ross for Secretary
of Commerce; Rep. Mike Pompeo as CIA Director; Jeff Sessions for
Attorney General; South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as Ambassador
to the United Nations; Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education; Rep.
Tom Price for Health and Human Services; Ben Carson for Secretary
of Housing and Urban Development; Mick Mulvaney as the director of
White House Office of Management and Budget; and Vincent Viola for
the Secretary of the Army.
Lauren Victoria Burke is a writer and political analyst. Lauren is a
frequent contributor to BlackPressUSA.com and the NNPA Newswire,
the news service of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. She
can be reached by email at LBurke007@gmail.com and on Twitter at @
LVBurke.
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