Donald Trump has accused President Obama of doing “absolutely nothing” for African-American people after becoming the first black President of the United States.
Speaking on ABC’s This Week, the Republican hopeful insisted he would win the African-American vote and the Hispanic vote if he wins the 2016 Presidential nomination, claiming Obama had not done enough to improve unemployment and income levels.
"I thought that he would be a great cheerleader for this country," said Trump. "I thought he'd do a fabulous job for the African American citizens of this country. He has done nothing.
"They have problems now in terms of unemployment numbers, look at their unemployment numbers. And you have - here you have a black president who's done very poorly for the African Americans of this country.
Trump has made outlandish and controversial comments a hallmark of his campaign, questioning John McCain’s war hero status because he was captured during Vietnam, claiming some undocumented Mexican immigrants were rapists and criminals and branding Hillary Clinton “the worst secretary of state in the history of our country”, to name but a few of his memorable statements. However, his divisive comments have done little to damage his popularity in opinion polls and Trump continues to maintain a lead over other GOP candidates.
President Obama has yet to respond to his claims, although he did use his recent visit to Ethiopia to address the “outrageous attacks” that Republican contenders including Trump had made in the past.
President Obama at a joint press conference with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam.
"It’s been interesting when you look at what’s happened with Mr. Trump, when he’s made some of the remarks that, for example, challenged the heroism of Mr. McCain, somebody who endured torture and conducted himself with exemplary patriotism, the Republican Party is shocked," he said.
"And yet, that arises out of a culture where those kinds of outrageous attacks have become far too commonplace and get circulated nonstop through the Internet and talk radio and news outlets. And I recognize when outrageous statements like that are made about me, that a lot of the same people who were outraged when they were made about Mr. McCain were pretty quiet."
