Voters Think Young Blacks Doing Better Under Trump Than Obama

Voters feel young black Americans are better off under President Trump than they were under Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey shows that 32% of Likely U.S. Voters believe life for young black Americans has gotten better since Trump’s election. Slightly more (36%) say life for these Americans has gotten worse, while 26% think it has stayed about the same. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

But in March 2014, just 16% said life for young black Americans had gotten better since Obama’s election five-and-a-half years earlier. By July 2016 in Obama’s final year in office, only 13% thought life was better for young blacks.

Even black voters are nearly twice as likely (28%) to say young black Americans are better off now than they were in the closing year of Obama’s presidency (15%).

Forty-seven percent (47%) of all voters, however, believe race relations are worse since Trump’s election. Still, that compares to 60% who felt that way after eight years of the Obama presidency. Just 20% say those relations are better now, while 30% rate them about the same.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on June 3-4, 2018 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology. 

Black unemployment is at an historic low. Among all Americans, fewer than ever know someone who is looking for work or given up the search, while confidence in the job market remains near record highs.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of blacks and 54% of other minority voters believe race relations have gotten worse since Trump was elected, a view shared by 45% of whites. By comparison, 38% of blacks, 51% of other minorities and 66% of whites felt race relations had gotten worse during Obama’s eight years in office.

Women and those under 40 are more likely than men and older voters to feel race relations have gotten worse under Trump. Men and voters 40 and over also are more confident that life for young black Americans has gotten better.

Democrats and voters not affiliated with either major political party are far more likely than Republicans to believe race relations are worse under Trump. Fifty-four percent (54%) of GOP voters think young black Americans are better off now, but only 16% of Democrats and 28% of unaffiliateds agree.

Fifty-four percent (54%) of voters who say life for young black Americans is better now believe race relations are improving, too. But among voters who say life for these young people has gotten worse, 94% feel race relations are also getting worse.

More voters think the government’s not doing enough to improve conditions for America’s black youth, although they think the young people themselves ultimately are most responsible for improving their own situation.

Just 22% of all Americans rate race relations in America today as good or excellent, and only another 22% think they're getting better. Forty-five percent (45%) say race relations are getting worse.

Seventy-six percent (76%) of black voters - and 55% of all voters - think the deteriorating relationship between Trump and black members of Congress is bad for black America.

Most voters (67%) also continue to believe the level of crime in low-income inner-city communities is a bigger problem in America today than police discrimination against minorities.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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