Biden and Trump Have Made Pitches About Black Economic Success. But What’s True?

As they face off in this year’s election, both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have aggressively courted Black Americans’ votes. Historically, Black voters have overwhelmingly backed Democrats, but polling so far this year shows some openness among Black voters, especially Black men, to support Trump. In May, the Pew Research Center reported that, at least this early in the presidential race, Biden has a 77%-18% edge over Trump among Black voters, which is lower than it was for Biden in 2020 (92%-8%) or for fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 (91%-6%).Both Trump and Biden have made pitches about Black economic success on their watches, sometimes with mixed levels of accuracy.Trump said his administration “achieved the lowest African American unemployment rate and the lowest African American poverty rate ever recorded.” Both metrics did reach record lows under Trump, but then went on to surpass those record lows under Biden. So we rated this Trump claim Half True.Biden got a Half True rating for saying, “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” Economists use two measures to assess the racial wealth gap, and Biden’s statement covered only one of them. With 2024’s first presidential...