Trump questions Civil Rights Act two months after questioning end of slavery

Donald Trump questioned the outcome of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in an interview with Axios that aired on Monday.

Trump also claimed he had done “more for the Black community” in the United States than President Lyndon Johnson, who signed the Civil Rights Act.

“How has it worked out? If you take a look at what Lyndon Johnson did, how has it worked out?” Trump asked.

The passage of the landmark legislation is considered one of the most important actions in American history, desegregating institutions from coast to coast and enshrining equal rights in American law for all time.

Trump’s comments Monday echo remarks he made two months ago questioning the abolition of slavery.

In an interview with Fox News in June, Trump said that Abraham Lincoln’s actions to emancipate enslaved Americans were “always questionable” and cast doubt on the “end result.”

His interviewer, Harris Faulkner, who is Black, noted that “we are free” as a result of Lincoln’s actions, saying it proved the former president “did pretty well.”

From the August 3 edition of “Axios on HBO”:

DONALD TRUMP: I did more for the Black community than anybody with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln, whether you like it or not. People say, “ooh that’s interesting” —

 

JONATHAN SWAN, Axios: You believe you did more than Lyndon Johnson, who passed the Civil Rights Act?

 

TRUMP: I think I did, yeah.

 

SWAN: How? How possibly did you do —

 

TRUMP: Because I got criminal justice reform done. I got prison reform.

 

SWAN: Lyndon Johnson.

 

TRUMP: I’ve done things, well —

 

SWAN: He passed the Civil Rights Act.

 

TRUMP: How has it worked out? If you take a look at what Lyndon Johnson did, how has it worked out?

 

SWAN: You think the Civil Rights Act was a mistake?

 

TRUMP: Because frankly, it took a long time.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.