Trump's Boast: Blacks will like me better than Obama

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Donald Trump is making a bold prediction about black voters.

In an interview airing Sunday on Fox’s “Media Buzz,” Trump told me there is already great affection for him in the black community.

“Look, the African Americans love me because they know I am going to bring back jobs,” he told me at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.

Okay, a pretty standard Trumpian boast. But then he said this:

“They are going to like me better than they like Obama. The truth is Obama has done nothing for them.”

The statement was so audacious that it took me a split-second to react.

“Did you just say,” I interrupted, “African-Americans are going to like you better than the first African-American president.”

The billionaire didn’t back off.

“I think that relatively speaking - I mean he does have a slight advantage in all fairness- but I think relatively speaking when I am finished I think they will absolutely love Donald Trump,” he said.

Keep in mind that most blacks routinely vote for Democrats. Ronald Reagan once got 14 percent of the African-American vote and it was considered a triumph.

There was one poll last fall that showed Trump with 25 percent support among blacks, but it would be a shocker if those numbers held up.

In the interview, Trump told me he has cut back his attacks on members of the media as losers and idiots because the press is treating him with more respect, mentioning the Wall Street Journal editorial page and a recent Time cover story.

Soon after we wrapped the interview, though, National Review attacked Trump as a menace to American conservatism, and he responded by calling it a failing publication with little influence. It was as if things had suddenly returned to normal.