Trump hits back at Jay-Z after rapper dismissed his claims about black unemployment
President
Trump hit back at Jay-Z on Sunday morning after the hip-hop star
dismissed Trump taking credit for the record low African-American
unemployment rate.
“Somebody
please inform Jay-Z that because of my policies, Black Unemployment has
just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!” the
president tweeted, repeating a misleading claim he made earlier this month.
Somebody please inform Jay-Z that because of my policies, Black Unemployment has just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2018
African American unemployment is the lowest ever recorded in our country. The Hispanic unemployment rate dropped a full point in the last year and is close to the lowest in recorded history. Dems did nothing for you but get your vote! #NeverForget @foxandfriends— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018
While
it’s true African-American unemployment (6.9 percent in December) is
now the lowest it has been since at least 1972, when the Bureau of Labor
Statistics began tracking that figure, it had fallen precipitously
during President Barack Obama’s second term (from 13.7 percent to 7.8
percent) — a drop that has continued during Trump’s first year in
office.
“Trump taking credit for this is like a rooster thinking the sun came up because he crowed,” said Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler.
In an interview with CNN’s Van Jones that aired Saturday night, Jay-Z — whose birth name is Shawn Carter — said that the numbers don’t matter.
“It’s not about money at the end of the day,” said Carter, whose net worth is estimated to be $810 million.
“Money doesn’t equate to happiness. It doesn’t. That’s missing the
whole point. You treat people like human beings then — that’s the main
point.”
Carter
also criticized the disparaging remarks Trump reportedly made about
African countries during an Oval Office meeting on immigration this
month.
“It
is disappointing and it’s hurtful,” Carter said. “It really is hurtful,
more than so … everyone feels anger. But after the anger, it’s real
hurtful. It’s looking down at a whole population of people, and it’s so
misinformed because these places have beautiful people and beautiful
everything. This is the leader of the free world speaking like this.”
Carter
then compared Trump’s comments during a closed-door meeting with
lawmakers to the racist remarks made by Donald Sterling, the former
owner of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA franchise. The NBA banned Sterling
for life in 2014 after recordings of his comments were made public — a
move Carter also criticized because he says it did not foster a
discussion.
“You
haven’t fixed anything,” Carter explained. “What you’ve done is spray
perfume on the trashcan.
What you do when you do that is the bugs come
and you spray something and you create a superbug.
Because you don’t
take care of the problem; you don’t take the trash out. You just keep
spraying whatever over it to make it acceptable. Then as those things
grow, you create a superbug. And now we have Donald Trump, the
superbug.”
Carter
said he was making the “superbug” comparison in jest, but added that
there must be a reason for Trump’s history of making racially
insensitive remarks.
“Somewhere
along his lineage, something happened to him,” Carter said. “Something
happened to him, and he is expressing it in this sort of way.”
It’s not the first time Trump has referenced Jay-Z on Twitter.
In
2014, after a surveillance video showing an altercation between Jay-Z
and Solange Knowles — the sister of his wife, Beyonce — surfaced, Trump
expressed concern about the Grammy award-winning rapper’s marriage.
“I
really like Jay Z but there is trouble in paradise,” Trump tweeted.
“When his wife’s sister starts whacking him, not good! No help from B
leads to a mess.”
I really like Jay Z but there is trouble in paradise. When his wife's sister starts whacking him, not good! No help from B leads to a mess.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2014
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