Jimmy Kimmel has slammed Donald Trump’s claim that he has “done more for black Americans” than “any president in US history”.
The late-night host reacted to the president’s remarks on his late show on Wednesday.
Kimmel discussed the ongoing protests happening across the US in reaction to the death of George Floyd, and added: “With all this going on, the president has been tweeting up a storm about what a gift he is to black Americans.”
He then quoted two tweets by Trump, in which the president claimed: ”I’ve done more for Black Americans, in fact, than any President in US history, with the possible exception of another Republican President, the late, great, Abraham Lincoln... and it’s not even close.”
Kimmel commented: “Lincoln ended slavery. Trump thinks it’s possible Lincoln did more.
“This would actually be funny if it wasn’t at all.”
Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862.
The proclamation was followed in 1865 by the Thirteenth Amendment, which states that ”neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”.
As pointed out by the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, some historians have emphasised the role of enslaved people in freeing themselves, notably through escape attempts.
