JORDAN REID: Did you know that Black people love Trump? You didn’t?! Hold on, he’ll tell you himself – this is from a recent speech he made to a group of conservative Black voters. 

DONALD TRUMP: “Black people are so much on my side now because they see what’s happening to me happens to them. The mug shot, we’ve all seen the mug shot — and you know who embraced more than anyone else? The Black population.

JORDAN REID: Alright. Donald Trump is a racist. We know this. Tangible evidence of his racism is almost too copious to list, and goes back decades. Remember that full-page newspaper ad he took out in 1989, calling for the executions of five teenagers accused of assaulting a white jogger in Central Park? 

Those kids were later exonerated, but Trump’s only post-exoneration statement was that, quote, you “have people on both sides.” Echoes of Charlottesville.

It’s no secret that the Trump campaign is actively seeking Black support in his bid for a second term. In 2019, in one of many, many examples of Trump’s efforts to “connect” with Black voters, Trump likened the way he was being treated to a “lynching.”

Here’s another quote: ”A lot of people said that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against. It’s been pretty amazing but possibly, maybe, there’s something there.”

And hey – have you seen Trump’s new foray into high-end apparel? By which I mean the $399 gold MAGA sneakers? Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo said in February that this footwear drop will be appealing to Black voters because “they love sneakers.”

Just…wow.

Perhaps most egregious, however, has been the far Right’s recent foray into the weaponization of artificial intelligence, with AI-generated imagery of Trump surrounded by adoring Black voters circulating widely. 

Trump is using Black people as props, and he’s not even being subtle about it. 

Now, at the moment a careful viewer can tell when an image has been AI-generated because figures tend to be missing fingers, or sporting extra arms, and so forth. But a) most viewers aren’t looking that closely…and b} AI won’t be that detectable for much longer, I guarantee you.

The efforts of the far right to deceive voters – and especially Black voters – are so pervasive and multi-pronged that the onus is put on the recipient of the information to determine its validity. And that is a terrifying prospect, no matter how you slice it.