President Donald Trump slammed the Democrats’ “betrayal” of black voters and pledged at a “Black Voices for Trump” event that “the best is yet to come” if he is reelected.

The president spoke to black supporters in Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday as his campaign launched the new coalition, telling the crowd that Democrats have let down them down and appear to care more for people in the country illegally than for the black community.



(Video: YouTube/CBS News)

“What do you prefer — ‘Blacks for Trump’ or ‘African-Americans for Trump?”‘ the president asked as he kicked off his speech. He was answered with a “Blacks for Trump” chant from the crowd of about 300 people at Atlanta’s World Congress Center.

“For decades, Democrats have taken African American voters totally for granted. They didn’t do anything for you,” Trump told the audience, touting his administration’s accomplishments so far in “undoing the damage” inflicted by Democrats.

“We’ve done more for African Americans in three years than the broken Washington establishment has done in more than 30 years,” he said, telling the crowd that Democrats have “dismissed you, they’ve hurt you and they’ve sabotaged you for far too long.”

With his speech regularly interrupted by cheers and chants of “four more years!” the president went on to press the lack of concern Democrats have shown the community while contrasting with his administration’s goals and achievements.

“The betrayal of the black community is unbelievable,” Trump said. “You have the worst schools than anybody in the country by far.”

“Democrats care more about illegal aliens than African-American citizens, or our military, or citizens all over the place,” he said at another point.

“Democrats want to give welfare and free health care to illegal aliens, courtesy of you, the American taxpayer and the African American community,” he said. “Republicans believe that public benefits should be protected for American citizens.”

“[With] the money that we spend on illegal aliens we could be rebuilding our inner cities, repairing our crumbling infrastructure and fixing our terrible public schools … but instead Democrats want to redistribute your wealth all over the entire world,” Trump said.

“Democrats want to invest in green global projects. I want to invest in black American communities,” he said at another point, talking about the formal exit from the 2015 landmark Paris agreement on Monday.

The president was introduced at the event by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

“Today they say if you are a conservative you’re somehow an Uncle Tom, you’re a horrible person,” Carson told the crowd. “What a bunch of crap … I only care about what God thinks.”

Vice President Mike Pence was also on hand as were prominent black supporters such as Diamond and Silk, Katrina Pierson, Paris Dennard, Alveda King, and Herman Cain.

(Video: CSPAN)

“We got work to do, and less than one year to do it. But seeing you all here, I’m more confident than ever, that if all of us do all that we can in every day between now and Election Day 2020, we will deliver another great victory for every American come November 2020,” Pence said. “We’re going to make America safer than ever before, we’re going to make America more prosperous than ever before.”

Trump promised that 2020 would be “a year of change in black communities all across the country,” asking the crowd to “reach out to your friends, your neighbors, your churches” ahead of the election.

“What has happened in the last three years for the black community, the African-American community has been really incredible and it is my honor to have been there with you,” the president said.

“And ladies and gentleman of the African-American community,” he concluded, “I just want to tell you really, really strongly, the best is yet to come.”

Supporters who attended the event seemed to agree.

(Video: YouTube/ WJBF

“All those things that the Democrats have been promising to do for the last 60 years, they have done absolutely none of it,” Inverson Jackson told WJBF.

“As a matter of fact, things have gotten worse,” he added, as he agreed that what Trump had said about Democrats forgetting about the African American community was true.

April Chapman told WJBF that the event felt like a “community” as “we were all here as patriots.”