Trump proposes $500 billion plan for black Americans, promises to create 3 million jobs and designate the KKK and Antifa as 'terrorist organizations'
President Donald Trump on Friday announced a new $500 billion plan promising "opportunity," "security," "prosperity," and "fairness" for black Americans if he is reelected in November.
The president's campaign is calling this the "Platinum Plan," Fox News reported. Trump's plan calls for $500 billion of capital investment into black communities, tax cuts and opportunity zones to support black-owned businesses, continued criminal justice reform, increased support for police, making lynching a federal hate crime, and the prosecution of the Ku Klux Klan and Antifa as terrorist organizations.
"For decades, Democrat politicians like Joe Biden have taken Black voters for granted. They made you big promises before every election — and then the moment they got to Washington, they abandoned you and sold you out," the president said in remarks obtained by Fox News. "The Democrats will always take Black voters for granted until large numbers of Black Americans vote Republican."
The plan rests on four pillars of economic, education, health care, and policing reforms.
Trump is promising a federal effort to help create 500,000 new black-owned businesses and 3 million new jobs for the black community. The plan calls for regulatory reform, examining "barriers to employment including fees, occupational licensing, arrest record inaccuracy and expungement."
The plan would also expand the federal bureaucracy by making the Minority Business Development Agency permanent, appointing its leader to the assistant secretary of commerce level, and "create a sub-office of African American affairs" to partner with the private sector and develop black-owned businesses.
Trump is calling for additional reforms to make it easier for black Americans to build credit through rent, utilities, and phone bills as well.
"Full school choice" is promised, as well as increases to Pell grants, the development of more apprenticeship and job-training programs, and increased childcare tax credits for "access to quality pre-school."
In terms of health care reform, the plan pledges to increase price transparency, leverage public-private partnerships to "develop healthcare facilities in low-income areas," and "defend religious freedom exemptions to respect religious believers and always protect life."
The Platinum Plan would also make Juneteenth a national holiday.
In his remarks announcing the plan, Trump committed to working on a "Second Step Act" follow-up to the "First Step Act" criminal justice reform legislation signed into law in his first term. Trump is calling for increased use of "drug rehabilitation vs. drug incarceration," a new National Clemency Program focusing on "wrongful prosecution and rehabilitation," police reform including "diversity training," and programs to help find jobs for rehabilitated Americans with criminal records.
Trump also attacked his Democratic rival, Vice President Joe Biden, for "offering black Americans nothing but the same, tired, empty slogans."
"I stand here to offer you solutions," Trump said, adding "no one in Washington politics today has done more to hurt Black Americans than Joe Biden."
Trump's speech also defended the police and the unborn.
"Instead of fighting for public safety for these communities, the Democrats are attacking our police and empowering far-left rioters, looters, and anarchists," Trump said. "In the Republican Party, we believe in protecting ALL black lives — including the unborn."