Donald Trump’s black outreach isn’t for black voters. It’s for wavering white Republicans.

by Dara Lind @DLind dara@vox.com Aug 24, 2016, 9:20a

Don’t look at who Donald Trump says he’s speaking to. Look at who’s in the room when he says it.

Yes, Trump has taken to addressing some portion of his stump speech to black voters. "What have you got to lose?" he rhetorically asks a hypothetical black audience. And yes, in meetings with his "Hispanic advisory group" and Sunday morning talk show appearances, Trump and campaign surrogates have begun hinting flirtatiously that they could be persuaded to stop calling for the deportation of 11 million unauthorized immigrants from the US.

As attempts at black and Latino outreach, these are probably too little too late. Trump is doing so badly among African Americans that, in more than one poll, the percentage of black support for Trump is smaller than the margin of error. And for the last year, Latino voters have been hearing that Donald Trump thinks Mexican immigrants are rapists and murderers, unauthorized immigrants "have to go," and Latinos can’t be fully American.

It’s so obviously dead on arrival as a strategy, in fact, that it’s barely worth thinking about in the terms it was presented. So think instead about how it might succeed.

Donald Trump’s racism hasn’t just turned off nonwhite voters. It’s turned off many white moderates and Republicans who would probably vote for any other Republican presidential nominee over Hillary Clinton, but are worried that Trump is simply too offensive, too bullying, and too bitter to lead the free world.

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http://www.vox.com/2016/8/24/12587672/donald-trump-s-black-outreach-isn-t-for-black-voters-it-s-for-wavering-white-republicans