President-elect Donald Trump claimed Friday night that African-Americans came through for him “big league” in the November election and said those who stayed home were “almost as good” as those who voted for him.

Trump’s comments came during a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the latest stop on an ongoing “thank you” tour of states where the Republican prevailed against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Nationally, exit polls showed Clinton overwhelmingly winning African-Americans over Trump, 89 percent to 8 percent. Still, that was a somewhat smaller margin than President Barack Obama enjoyed in his 2012 reelection against Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Exit polls from that race showed Obama garnering 93 percent of the black vote compared to Romney’s 6 percent.

“The African-American community was great to us,” Trump told his crowd Friday night. “They came through, big league. Big league. And frankly if they had any doubt, they didn’t vote, and that was almost as good because a lot of people didn’t show up, because they felt good about me.”


Among the reason for Clinton’s loss was lower-than-anticipated turnout among demographic groups that propelled Obama’s victory, including African-Americans. Trump, meanwhile, benefited from a strong performance among working-class white voters.

Michigan was among the industrial Midwestern states where Trump unexpectedly prevailed.

Several protesters were removed from his rally at DeltaPlex Arena, prompting the president-elect to declare at one point, “Get ‘em out of here.”

Trump introduced Betsy DeVos, his choice for education secretary, who hails from West Michigan, and announced that Andrew Liveris, the chief executive of Dow Chemical, would lead a national manufacturing council. Liveris told the audience that Dow would soon bring a new research-and-development center to Michigan.


People are removed for disrupting President-elect Donald Trump as he speaks at a rally at DeltaPlex Arena, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016, in Grand Rapids, Mich. (Andrew Harnik / AP)

In Louisiana, the incoming president addressed a large crowd at an airport hangar, and at one point tossed his trademark “Make America Great Again” hat to a supporter. He noted that he’d been named Time’s “Person of the Year” and asked the crowd if the magazine should go back to its former “Man of the Year.”

Gauging the boisterous response, he declared the answer was yes.

Trump campaigned for Republican John Kennedy, the state treasurer who faces off Saturday against Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell, a Democrat, for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. David Vitter. Neither won a majority in the November primary, leading to the runoff. Polls have shown Kennedy with a comfortable lead.


While candidate Trump was often at odds with the establishment wing of his party, the incoming president has been broadly supported by GOP leaders since the election. And he is trying to consolidate any lingering factions, most immediately in Louisiana, where a victory by Kennedy would cement the party’s four-seat advantage in the new Senate.

“We need John in Washington,” Trump said, speaking in front of a lectern that urged voters to “Geaux Vote. Vote GOP.” Trump said he needed Kennedy to help him enact his agenda.

In private, people close to Trump said he was expected to name yet another Goldman Sachs executive to his White House team. The president-elect’s National Economic Council is to be led by Gary Cohn, president and chief operating officer of the Wall Street bank, which Trump repeatedly complained during the election campaign would control Hillary Clinton if she won.

Washington state Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a member of the GOP House leadership team, emerged as a leading candidate to head the Interior Department, according to a person involved in the transition.


Major decisions remain for Trump, most importantly his choice for secretary of state. The deliberations have become a source of tension within his transition team, with chief of staff Reince Priebus said to be backing Mitt Romney while other advisers oppose the idea of selecting the 2012 GOP nominee, given his fierce criticism of Trump during the campaign.

Trump announced that Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who was an early favorite, was no longer under consideration.

On a busy Friday, Trump also spoke by telephone with Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who broke with protocol during the campaign to publicly endorse Hillary Clinton and said afterward she would not maintain “a diplomatic silence in the face of attitudes of racism, sexism, misogyny or intolerance of any kind.”

Sturgeon’s office said she used Friday’s call to emphasize the “values Scotland and the United States share.” Trump’s transition team described the conversation as a “short congratulatory call.”


Trump brimmed with optimism during his two rallies, eager to begin implementing his agenda.

Come January, Trump told the crowd in Michigan: “The American people will be in charge. Your voice, your desires, your hopes, your aspirations, you will never again fall on deaf ears.”

He rattled through some of the major themes of his campaign, vowing to renegotiate faulty trade deals, repair roads and bridges and “build a wall” to guard against unlawful immigration.

“We have people coming into our country by the thousands, thousands and thousands of people and now I don’t have to campaign so I don’t have to say Hillary’s going to increase it by 550 percent,” Trump said in Baton Rouge. “No, I don’t have to say it anymore. Isn’t it nice?”


Trump’s day also included a meeting at his New York City tower with House Speaker Paul Ryan to discuss policy priorities.

“We are really excited about getting to work and hitting the ground running in 2017,” Ryan said after the morning meeting.

Meanwhile, there apparently is a split over the next head of the Republican National Committee. Current chairman Priebus is heading to the White House to be chief of staff.

Priebus is said to support Michigan Republican Party chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel for the post, though other senior officials are backing Nick Ayers, an aide to Vice President-elect Mike Pence. McDaniel addressed the Michigan crowd before Trump took the stage but no RNC announcement was made.


Washington Post and Associated Press