Ben Schreckinger is a reporter for Politico.

For many minorities, Donald Trump’s gold-plated brand is tarnished by a presidential campaign mired in racial controversy. Beyond his well-known rants about immigrants, Trump has criticized Black Lives Matter protesters and taken heat for tweeting a chart that exaggerates the percentage of murders committed by black Americans. Lucky for him, two North Carolina sisters are on a mission to stud that tarnished brand with diamonds and wrap it in silk.

In an only-in-Trump’s America tale, the African-American video bloggers Lynette “Diamond” Hardaway and Rochelle “Silk” Richardson have—through moxie, YouTube and love of Trump—risen from obscurity to become, in the words of the mogul himself, “very famous and very rich.” They’ve achieved that fame over the past six months with a series of infectiously watchable videos in which the pair speaks directly to a camera, praising Trump, denigrating his rivals and defending him from his critics.


In South Carolina, black voters make up only a tiny proportion of the state's Republican primary electorate—fewer than 2 percent of participants were nonwhite in 2012. But Trump’s campaign is hoping that his appeal beyond traditional Republicans will extend to black voters, who can easily cross over to vote for him in Southern states, most of which feature open primaries. In South Carolina, Trump has consistently attracted pockets of black Democrats to his rallies and called in upstate Pastor Mark Burns to stump for him.

As this unlikely play for black voters approaches its first real test on Saturday, the most surprising sister act in American politics is camped out in the state, helping energize Trump’s rallies and bringing the rhetorical hammer down on those who criticize the Republican front-runner.

In the words of Fox Business Network’s Stuart Varney, who hosted them on his show last month: “You know, I’m terrified of you ladies.”

And he should be: Even Pope Francis hasn’t escaped their wrath. “Listen, we respect the pope,” Diamond told POLITICO on Thursday, hours after Trump tangled with God’s representative on Earth. “But here’s the deal: There are too many problems going on in the Catholic Church for the pope to stick his nose in what’s going on over here.”

Like what sort of problems? “The boys being molested by the Catholic priests,” said Diamond, expanding on the critique laid out in the sisters’ formal video response to Francis.

In a wide-ranging—and at times combative—Skype session, the sisters also defended Trump against accusations of racism, called out media “trickery,” and, asked whether they receive money from Trump, made it very, very clear they do not want to talk about the mogul’s effect on their personal finances.

Like Trump himself, Diamond (the talkative one) and Silk (the quiet one) are natural entertainers with camera-pleasing instincts that make it difficult to turn away. They also have a knack for shrouding themselves in mystery.

Diamond, who sports longer hair, and Silk with a blond streak not far from the hue of Trump’s own coiffure, were born in North Carolina and returned to the state in their teenage years. They declined to say where they lived in between. “That’s none of your business,” Diamond said.

It is unclear when this happened because the sisters declined to provide their exact ages. “We’re old enough to vote, and we’re old enough to drink,” said Diamond. (And drink they do, from wine glasses, on camera, including in one video filmed early in the morning on the day of the Iowa caucuses in which Silk downs “a little something something” to calm her nerves.)

Though the pair allows that they have other siblings, they declined to say how many. “We don’t want to disclose that,” Diamond said.

Today, the sisters blog and “stump for Trump” full time. Before that, they were engaged in other occupations, which they also declined to disclose. “That’s none of your business,” Diamond said.

Their journey on the Trump Train goes back to the beginning—June 2015—when Silk called Diamond during Trump’s televised presidential announcement and told her, “Girl, this is going to be the next president of the United States.”

Soon, the “trickery of the media” compelled the pair to speak out on Trump’s behalf.

In early July, Diamond posted a black-and-white video to her dormant YouTube channel. Titled “The Viewers View,” it defended the mogul amid the firestorm kicked off by disparaging comments he made during his announcement speech about undocumented Mexican immigrants. By the end of the first month, Diamond had pulled in Silk, switched over to color and honed a presentation in which she extols Trump’s virtues in the cadences of a Southern preacher.

In their videos, Silk, a one-woman choir, interjects with "mhmms," "uhuhs," "OKs," “what?” and “yes.” Their Trumpian sermons are rhythmic and rhyming. Their candidate is a “motivator, a job creator and a good negotiator.” The pair caught the eye of the Trump campaign last summer with a video defending the businessman’s adviser Michael Cohen (pronounced “Co-han” by Diamond) after the Trump Organization executive threatened a Daily Beast reporter with legal action—and worse—if the reporter published allegations of sexual assault made against Trump in court by his first wife.

“We just thought it was hysterical,” a Trump insider said of the video. “We saw them and we were like, ‘Wow.’ And then Michael Cohen started retweeting them. The campaign started blasting it out to Drudge. … Because of open primaries and large African-American populations in Southern states as well as the entertainment factor, they are a net positive for the campaign.”

Trump adviser Daniel Scavino, now the campaign’s director of social media, invited the pair to attend November’s Republican debate in Milwaukee, via tweet. They obliged.

In December, Trump called them onstage at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. Since then—in addition to their prodigious output of videos with titles like “Donald Trump is the only one that has the balls to hit a home run for the American People” and “We are not giving Jeb the Keys to the White House. That set of keys is going to Donald Trump” — the pair have traveled to Mississippi, Iowa and now South Carolina to stump for Trump.

They see in the businessman qualities that many others miss. “He is very meek,” said Diamond. “He’s humble.”

In venues like Rolling Out, a publication of black culture, their admiration for Trump has led to awkward questions. Questions like: “How do you define a bigot and why is Donald Trump not a bigot?” (“He is the only candidate that’s concerned about all Americans”). And: “Your critics have called you ignorant and not serious in your support of Trump. How do you answer these critics? (“Ignorance is continuing to vote for a Democratic system that promises you hope and change just to get your votes”).

Skepticism and hostility from black critics does not deter the sisters, who believe the Democratic Party has done little for black voters. “The more people throw hate, the more we educate,” Diamond explained.

“It’s time for blacks to stop segregating themselves,” said Silk.

Trump, the sisters insist, is not even a little bit racist—despite the controversies that have dogged him for decades.

What about the saga in the 1970s when Trump was the face of a landmark patterns-and-practices lawsuit brought by the Justice Department against his family for housing discrimination?

“Don’t tell me what happened in 1973,” said Diamond. “Was I even born then? I don’t even know.” (“I was,” she clarified. “But I was very, very little.”)

What about earlier this week, when Trump repeatedly referred to Ben Carson as “Obama” during a campaign, confusing the retired neurosurgeon with the first black president?

“It may have been because Carson talks so low and so soft that he almost sounds like Obama. I want my next president to speak volumes.” Diamond said. “And, baby, that’s why we need a Donald J. Trump stumping things.”

Despite Trump’s record of racial controversy, his campaign and its allies believe the businessman’s ability to attract nontraditional Republican voters can extent to minorities, many of whom have long been attracted to his success-based celebrity persona. The mogul has courted black faith leaders for years, and senior members of his campaign confer with them daily. One of them, Darrell Scott, is preparing to unveil a “Black Americans for Trump” coalition in the coming weeks.

For their part, Diamond and Silk, former Democrats themselves, promote ditchandswitchnow.com to get black voters (and Democrats of all races) to switch their voter registrations in states with closed primaries so they are eligible to vote for Trump.

Courtesy Diamond and Silk

Bishop Orrin Pullings of Virginia attended a meeting of black faith leaders at Trump Tower last year. Though he is now leaning toward Marco Rubio, he has been tickled by the sisters’ video. “How much are you getting paid? That was my first question,” said Pullings.

It is a good question, especially because Trump said the sisters have become “very famous and very rich” when introducing them at the veterans fundraiser he hosted in Iowa on the eve of the caucuses. But it is not one they are keen to answer. “We are stumping for Trump because we want him to be president,” said Diamond. “This is not about money.” The sisters say they pay their own way when they travel to be with Trump—and that they follow his deal-making advice by seeking out hotels with the best rewards programs. The pair sell merchandise, including a purple wine goblet, on their website.

Beyond that, they do not want to discuss their finances. “That’s none of your business,” said Diamond.

But what did Trump mean when he said they had become very rich?

“Ask Donald,” said Silk. (A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.)

Further questioning about what exactly Trump meant was met with only laughter and stonewalling. “How much money are you making, Ben? How much is in your account?” asked Diamond.

But seriously, what did Trump mean? “Do you want to donate to us, Ben? Do you want to cut us a check so we can travel around?”

