Black conservative influencer, Rob Smith, created waves on social media with his controversial Tweets this week, claiming that “Black people will never vote Republican in any real numbers.” It began when Trump’s mugshot was released last Thursday, subsequently sparking theories that this would “bring all the black voters over for Trump.” Posobiec was admittedly skeptical about these claims as well. He invited Smith to his podcast Wednesday to unpack the truth behind his statements on Twitter.
Defending his stance, Smith begins, “I just kept it 100% honest. And one of the things that I said is that people are so used to getting lied to that the truth is some sort of foreign thing to them.”
Smith reminded the audience of the tremendous effort put forth by conservative black groups to get Trump elected back in 2020, referencing Blacks for Trump specifically. The number of African Americans voting for Trump then was still only around 11 percent.
“And so when I see this narrative start to happen via social media that because there's a Trump mugshot, and a couple of black people put some glitter videos out that all of a sudden there's gonna be [a]… 30% [to] 40% black vote for Trump, it strikes me as number one, completely absurd. And number two, fundamentally, not understanding the infrastructure that is needed or with the numbers really were in 2020.”
He explained that he was not declaring public support for any other current presidential candidate, but simply stating what he believes to be the truth with the infrastructure from 2020 being gone.
“And furthermore … as a black man, as a human being in general, the idea that some sort of mug shot is going to make Donald Trump more relatable to Black people, whether it's me or somebody from the hood or whatever, it is ridiculous to the point of being laughable.”
He clarified that he himself was not offended by this notion, but that he “can't even believe that people are still seriously having the conversation.”
"Well, and so you made a point as well," Posobiec interjected, "talking about the sources of where people get their information, the idea that liberalism is widespread within the community."
Smith expanded on points he made regarding the sources the black community tends to get their information from, citing platforms such as Shade Room and The Breakfast Club that get “tens of millions of viewers every single day.”
Referencing the handful of viral videos of black people showing their sudden support of Trump after seeing his mugshot, Posobiec pointed out that those sharing them on sites such as TikTok and Twitter are mostly Trump supporters and that they did not “organically” catch fire.
However, the view Smith offered is not universal. Dr. Carol Swain, former co-chair of President Trump's 1776 Commission, offered this perspective to Human Events on the reaction to President Trump's mugshot among members of minority communities:
"The unintended consequences of the Trump arrest is likely to be a huge boost in his popularity among blacks and Hispanics," Swain wrote. "I have spoken to several blacks who identify with Trump and see parallels between his arrest and their own encounters with law enforcement. Americans can recognize double standards and injustice when they see it. The arrest of Trump and the 19-codefendants no doubt increased his support among all Americans."
Whether Swain or Smith proves to be correct will likely be determined by whether the GOP heeds the point universally agreed upon by Poso and Smith at the conclusion of the episode: there needs to be more questions around logistics and fundamentals of the black vote. Conservatives need to think critically, and think hard about not just this, but how to counter the massive amounts of left-wing propaganda engrained in popular black media.
