Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) this week headlined a "Black Americans for Trump" event in Atlanta that The New Republic's Talia Jane has deemed a "major bust."
In her dispatch on the event, Jane notes that Trump didn't even bother to show up and instead spoke to attendees via telephone about his planned tax cuts for businesses.
But it wasn't just Trump's decision to literally phone in his appearance that made the event so lackluster, writes Jane.
"The roundtable setup featured Representative (and Trump V.P. wannabe) Byron Donalds, former Trump Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, and Representative Wesley Hunt in attendance," she writes. "The seats were positioned in a semi-arc facing a gaggle of cameras and sea of white people, and everyone looks abundantly unenthused to be there."
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Jane goes on to explain how the Atlanta event was just one of a string of failed Black voter outreach efforts.
"In May, Trump hosted a small rally in the Bronx to gin up the Black vote after an even smaller appearance at a Harlem bodega in April," she writes. "And in June, Trump appeared at a Black church in Detroit before skipping off to a white nationalist convention. The church stunt was a flop: At least half the audience was white, none of the attendees reporters spoke with were actual congregants, and the megachurch’s pastor said people laughed in his face when he scrambled to find people to fill the pews for the event."
