Thursday, June 22, 2023 | 2 a.m.
View more of the Sun's opinion section
For most of my life, I and just about every other Black person I knew thought of Donald Trump as an all-right guy. Nobody knew much about him other than that he was rich. And not typical rich, like he could afford some nice things. No, we all thought Trump was obscenely rich. Like Scrooge McDuck swimming in pools of money rich. In that way, he was an aspirational figure to many of us.
Our music echoed Trump’s aspirational status. Every popular rapper, from Nas to Nelly to Diddy to Lil Wayne, mentioned Trump in at least one song. And to a man, each one referenced Trump to make some metaphor about how much money he had or was going to get. Trump was synonymous with having money. And having money, as all Americans are taught pretty early, is the definition of success.
But by 2016, Trump’s status as an aspirational figure among the Black community was revoked. In 2016, Los Angeles rappers Y.G. and Nipsey Hussle released a song called “FDT.” I’ll let you figure out what that stands for. Suffice to say, the song is a harsh critique of Donald Trump.
How did this happen? How did Trump’s status tank so quickly? For literally decades, he was — at least to all the Black people I knew — a man that symbolized success. What did he do?
The short answer is, he was racist. Once Black people like you, there’s not a lot of things you can do to make them dislike you. You can cheat on your wife (Bill Clinton). Smoke crack (Marion Berry). But one thing that is for sure on the short list, is one cannot be racist. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
Y.G. encapsulated the consensus shift on Trump succinctly in “FDT” when he said, “we always thought he was straight, … But now, since we know how you really feel, this is how we feel.”
Trump’s status as an aspirational figure was not exclusive to Black Americans. Americans of all colors saw him as someone who symbolized success. This branding helped him build luxury hotels and casinos, and sell “power ties.”
It also fueled his ascendance to the presidency. When Trump came down that Trump Tower escalator in 2015, he cast himself as the successful businessman who can utilize his business acumen to also make America a success. He can “Make America Great Again.”
Like Black Americans used to, current Trump supporters have an aspirational relationship with Donald Trump. They aspire to have his wealth. They aspire to have his freedom to say whatever he wants to say and do whatever he wants to do, seemingly without any real repercussions.
I wonder, though, is there anything that Trump can do that would sever that aspirational relationship with his supporters? For Black people, racism was the death knell of that relationship. Is there anything he could do that would cause a similar 180-degree turn among his supporters?
Lying isn’t a deal breaker. I know … “all politicians lie.” Even if you believe that, Trump was unique in both the frequency of his lies and their audacity. Sharpiegate. The crowd size at his inauguration. The 2020 election. No lie left behind.
Losing isn’t a deal breaker. He lost the 2020 presidential election. No one reasonably disputes this.
Costing the Republican Party control of the Senate isn’t a deal breaker. Per the conservative magazine National Review, “Trump played a crucial, often decisive role in picking so many of the bad candidates who lost winnable races” during the 2022 election cycle. Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona were all Senate seats that, if we’re being honest, Republicans should have won. But … Trump.
Being accused of criminal behavior isn’t a deal breaker either. Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in April on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records relating to payments he made to two women in exchange for their silence about affairs with him. Allegedly, the payments were made through intentionally false business records in order to conceal their nature to prevent them from negatively affecting Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
He was indicted again earlier this month. This time, by a federal grand jury on 31 counts relating to his mishandling of classified records. If you have read the indictment, you would know that “mishandling of classified records” is a bit of a euphemism. What Trump is accused of is worse than simply putting classified documents in the wrong place.
He’s not being charged simply because he took classified documents home to Mar-a-Lago after his presidency ended. He’s being charged because he took classified documents and he refused to return them when asked by the National Archives and Records Administration on multiple occasions.
Taking them home is a mistake. Refusing to give them back is a choice.
Additionally, he allegedly conspired to keep classified documents even after they were subpoenaed by a federal grand jury. He lied to his own attorneys about how many documents he had in his possession. Further, when talking to his attorney about what to do with the classified documents that the attorney discovered, Trump suggested, according to the indictment, using a gesture, that he “pluck out” any documents that were “really bad.” Trump made this suggestion despite being required by federal law to turn over all classified documents in his possession.
National security information has different classifications, including “Confidential,” “Secret” or “Top Secret.” Confidential information is that which reasonably could be expected to cause damage to national security. Secret information is that which reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to national security. Top Secret information is that which reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security.
Trump is charged with refusing to return 31 documents containing national security information. Nine of those documents were classified as Secret. One of those documents has no classification marking. Twenty-two of those documents contain Top Secret information, capable of causing exceptionally grave damage to national security.
Trump famously proclaimed in 2016, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” Seven years later, all the evidence says that he’s probably right. He’s been indicted twice, and he will still likely win the Republican Party nomination for president.
But as I read the federal indictment, I thought about one thing that might sever the stranglehold Trump has on the Republican Party. It’s not lies. It’s not losing. It’s not costing the party seats. It’s not accusations of criminality. It’s not even racism.
It’s prison.
Eric Foster, a community member of the editorial board, is a columnist for The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com. Foster is a lawyer in private practice.
