'A Contract with Black Americans': Black Businessman Praises Trump's 'Platinum Plan' for African Americans
President Trump has unveiled a plan for Black Americans to increase jobs and financial opportunities. It is called the "Black Economic Empowerment Platinum Plan" and it commits $500 billion to inner-city areas to create an era of new prosperity and close the wealth gap in black communities.
The president recently pitched the plan during an event in Atlanta.
"I'm here today to announce a brand-new plan to deliver more opportunity, more security, more fairness, and more prosperity to black communities," said Trump. "We call it the Platinum Plan and that's a contract with black Americans and it's going to be something that people talk about for a long time to come."
Georgia small business owner Bruce LeVell, who also heads the president's National Diversity Coalition, says he was overcome with emotion as he heard details of the plan.
"I was just choked up because never in my life have I seen a president – like this is real stuff here," LeVell told CBN News. "This is real meat."
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California GOP Congressional candidate Joe Collins, who also attended the event, applauds the move.
"I was really impressed and really surprised because I've never seen an agenda for the black community like I've seen this president layout before and I look forward to this economic improvement," Collins said during an interview on CBN's Faith Nation. "And I'm telling you, the inner cities need it but we also need to vote for people who want to see us do better instead of voting for our comfortability."
The president's plan comes at a time when America's wealth gap between whites and blacks remains substantial.
According to a report by the Federal Reserve, in 2019, the typical white family had an approximate net worth of $188,200, compared to $24,100 for black families.
Plus about 46 percent of white families own their own home, compared to 17 percent of black families.
President Trump is promising that, if reelected, over the next four years his administration will improve those numbers by creating three million jobs for the black community, 500,000 black-owned businesses. He also commits to increasing homeownership opportunities for African Americans, providing access to better education and higher policing standards.
LeVell commented, "This is a tremendous, tremendous boost for, as I say, the underserved communities across this great nation. This is a great, great way to spur growth in a lot of our communities that's been honestly left behind."
Often touting his accomplishments such as historically low unemployment for blacks and prison reform, the President argues that Democrats have long taken African-American voters for granted.
"They made you big promises before every election and then the moment they got to Washington they abandoned you and they sold you out," explained Trump. "The Democrat Party used you and lied to you every single time and you know it better than anybody else knows it."
In 2016, Trump received just eight percent of the black vote. A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll found black voters heavily favor former Vice President Joe Biden over Trump 88 to nine percent.
LeVell believes it is time for blacks to seriously consider what Trump has to offer.
"Take look around you and ask yourself do you like your roads, do you like your schools, do you like everything around you?" LeVell asked. "If your answer's no then let's try it this way."
"Don't get caught up in the emotions, pay attention to the numbers," he added.
LeVell admitted that it's a tough sell to many considering the hostility and division in today's political climate.
"There's only a handful of courageous, crazy people like me to go out on national stage and talk about it because of the fear of cancel culture," he explained. "This cancel culture is very divisive and it's very aggressive towards anything that disrupts or disturbs the, quote, 'pay-to-play' establishment."
Yet he is hopeful that Election Day results will prove the polls wrong.
Meanwhile, to further woo black voters, the president's plan also includes a proposal to make Juneteenth, the day African Americans mark the end of slavery in the US, a federal holiday.