Speaking during an interview with former CNN personality Don Lemon on Friday, June 21, former TMZ personality Van Lathan explained why black voters are switching from the Democrat Party to former President Donald Trump. He said that one reason for the somewhat surprising shift is that former President Trump represents and embodies the “American dream.”

As background, even CNN has noted the shift in black voter sentiment, with CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten has noted that Trump is headed toward record performance with black voters, saying, “It‘s a huge alarm. It‘s spiraling, it‘s ambulance, it‘s police sirens, it‘s any alarm you can think of. That should be what’s going off on the Democratic side.”

Enten added, “If that held through the election, [it] would be the best performance for a Republican presidential candidate among Black voters in 64 years, since Richard Nixon back in 1960.” He continued, “Can‘t treat Black voters as a monolith. This age breakdown shows it. It shows that younger Black voters are far less supportive of the president than older Black voters are.”

Lathan, for his part, explained that Trump is popular amongst many voters, including black voters, because he is a clear example of “the American dream,” and thus what voters want out of life. He said, “In a lot of ways, Donald Trump is, I should say for a lot of people, Donald Trump is the most crystal-clear example of the American dream.”

Continuing, he explained that Trump can do what he wants because of that success, with that freedom being what people want. He explained, “He is somebody who does whatever he wants, no matter who he hurts. He is somebody who says whatever he wants and he’s only stronger because of it. Like, there’s a freedom that some people aspire to in America, and it only comes with the ability to crush something.”

Further elaborating on that point, Lathan explained that Trump’s “dominance” is what people see the American Dream and success as meaning, and so they like him and want to be him. He said, “A lot of people’s idea of the American dream isn’t us all doing well and having what we want; it’s dominance. It’s ‘we’re number one, we’re the best, we’re at the top of the food chain, we are sharks.’ And Donald Trump seems like an apex predator because he eats everything around him, even the people closest to him and no one calls him into question for it. And I think that’s what a lot of people want.”

Watch him here:

https://rumble.com/v52xu86-ex-tmz-personality-says-black-voters-shifting-to-trump-because-he-represent.html

Lathan added that President Biden hasn’t been particularly inspiring, unlike Trump, leading to his generally lackluster support. He said, “They don’t feel particularly inspired by Joe Biden. They don’t see things changing in their neighborhoods, and the political promises they’re aware of from Joe Biden, they can see very obviously that they didn’t happen.”

He continued, “And sometimes that runs at cross purposes with some of the other things the president has done, but if you say, ‘Hey, he didn’t give us voting rights,’ or ‘Hey, he didn’t give us police reform, that’s what he said he was going to do and it didn’t happen.’ Those are very big holes in what has happened in the last three years for Joe Biden.”

Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video, Don Lemon’s YouTube