Trump Rooting for the Housing Crisis Says a Lot About How His Presidency Would Impact Black America | lovebscott.com

Trump Rooting for the Housing Crisis Says a Lot About How His Presidency Would Impact Black America

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Black America felt the negative impact of the 2007 mortgage crisis more deeply than the rest of America.

In 2009, the New York Times reported on a study that found Black homeowners were more than twice as likely to have subprime mortgages compared with white homeowners – even within comparable income brackets. For example, high-earning Black people were about three times as likely to have subprime loans as white people with similar incomes.

This led to a substantial loss of wealth in our community: One study estimated that Black people would lose $194 billion in wealth through 2012 as a result of the housing crisis.

And Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, rooted for all of this to happen.

In 2006, Trump said when asked about the possibility of a crash in the housing market, “I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy.”

“If there is a bubble burst, as they call it, you know you can make a lot of money,” he went on. “If you’re in a good cash position—which I’m in a good cash position today—then people like me would go in and buy like crazy.”

Take a second to let those words sink in. Donald Trump hoped for a crash to happen. He rooted for millions of people to lose their homes, all because he knew he would have an opportunity to exploit the crash and turn a profit.

Donald Trump was ready and willing to make money off of our suffering.

It’s been 10 years since he made those statements, and over the past decade we’ve seen the ugly effects of the housing crash. But even knowing how harmful it was to so many hard-working American families, Trump hasn’t changed his tune at all.

After his comments from 2006 started getting attention, Trump released a statement doubling down.

“I am a businessman and I have made a lot of money in down markets, sometimes as much as I’ve made when markets are good. Frankly, this is the kind of thinking our country needs,” his statement says.

Really, Donald Trump? Our country needs a leader who roots for hardship so they can make a quick buck at our expense? We need to elect leaders who care about our communities and our families.

This says a lot about the type of man Donald Trump is, and the type of president he’ll be: He will do anything and hurt anyone without a second thought, as long as he comes out on top in the end.

I’ve been vocal about my support for Hillary Clinton: I believe that she will actively work to improve life for Black Americans, both by fixing broken institutional systems that disenfranchise us, like the criminal justice system, but also through proactive policies specifically focused on making America a more equitable nation.

I want Hillary to president. Not just because I want her to beat Donald Trump, but because she inspires me.

With Hillary, I see an America that actually lives up to its promise of equality. And I know she’ll build on the progress President Obama has made, instead of dismantling our president’s legacy piece by piece until there’s nothing left.

And that last fact is particularly important, because Trump led the birther movement that worked so hard to smear and delegitimize the nation’s first Black president.

This is not a game. This election is too important for us to sit on the sidelines. Imagine what kind of suffering the Black community would experience if the values articulated by Donald Trump are turned into a reality. He’s made it very clear that he only cares about himself, and his comments about the housing crisis show just how little concern he has for the problems we face.

It’s more important than ever for us to stand up to Donald Trump—because Black America can’t afford a Trump presidency.

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