“I have done more for Black Americans than anybody with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln,” Donald Trump has claimed on multiple occasions. “Nobody can dispute it.”

Well, lots of people have examined his record and drawn a dramatically different conclusion. Here’s what they have found.

The economic recovery from the Great Recession that started under the Obama administration continued during the first three years of Trump’s presidency, benefiting Black as well as white Americans. In 2019, Black unemployment fell to 5.9 percent, a historic low.

That same year, the poverty rate for all Americans plummeted to 10.5 percent, the lowest since 1959. The rate for Blacks, who comprised 13.2 percent of the population and 23.8 percent of America’s poor, however, remained stubbornly high at 18.8 percent, in part because the Trump administration tightened eligibility requirements for food stamps. Jobs held by Blacks were still concentrated in industries offering lower pay, inadequate health insurance and sick leave, and fewer opportunities to move up.

Touted by the Trump administration, “Opportunity Zones” failed to benefit Blacks living in low income and undercapitalized neighborhoods, with most of the funds subsidizing high-end apartment buildings, hotels and student housing. And regulations issued by the Department of Housing and Urban........

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