Listen Live
WOL Featured Video
CLOSE

Katrina Pierson, the once-combative spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, has re-emerged as a communications specialist for America First Policies, a right-wing group that supports President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda and vilifies mainstream media.

“I think President Trump’s first 100 days is going really well,” Pierson said in an interview. “Hillary Clinton would have done nothing.”

Pierson is indeed a polarizing figure: She has been criticized for making wild accusations on Trump’s behalf during the 2016 presidential campaign — she once showed up for a television interview wearing a necklace of bullets to show her support for the NRA; she echoed Trump’s false claims that mobs of Muslims in New Jersey were cheering the 911 terrorist attacks and she explained that Trump’s bizarre middle-of-the-night tweets were Trump’s plan to circumvent the mainstream media.

For conservatives, Pierson is a steady voice of reason. For liberals, she a walking contradiction who peddles lies on Trump’s behalf.

Today, Pierson is still speaking out about conservative causes and she believes Trump will help improve the quality of life for African-Americans through education, jobs, health care – and building the border wall to crack down on crime, drugs and human trafficking. She said Trump’s tough stance on illegal immigration will help African-Americans in the long run.

“Illegal immigration impacts the Black community,” Pierson said. “When illegal immigrants settle in the United States, they don’t settle in gated communities, they settle in Black communities and poor communities. You can’t have an honest discussion about illegal immigration without talking about the cost of illegal immigration, financially, socially and culturally.”

There is an extra burden placed on Black communities, Pierson said, because of strained social resources offered to illegal immigrants.

“Nobody is opposed to immigration, it’s illegal immigration that’s the problem,” Pierson said. “Crime is a problem, especially in border states like Texas, where I live. And resources are driven away from the Black community to non-English speaking residents. It’s a burden on the Black community and that’s why the border wall is so important.”

But Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist, isn’t buying it.

Finney said Trump is trying to roll back civil rights achievements which could have an adverse impact on African-Americans for years to come.

Trump, Finney said, is proposing to cut funding from critical social programs that benefit many Black Americans instead of making good on his campaign promise to rebuild urban communities. The president, for example, is proposing to slash $6 billion from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the agency responsible for allocating funds for affordable housing. The agency is run by HUD Secretary Ben Carson, the only African-American in Trump’s Cabinet.

The Trump administration is also discontinuing a signature girls education initiative championed by former first lady Michelle Obama. The “Let Girls Learn” program, which she and President Barack Obama started in 2015 to facilitate educational opportunities for adolescent girls in developing countries, has been scrapped.

“It’s abundantly clear that Trump doesn’t understand the challenges our communities face,” Finney said. “The fact that Trump has empowered people who have an agenda to undue progress, particularly on civil rights, is frightening.”

“And he has empowered Steve Bannon [Chief White House Strategist] who is steps from the Oval Office, a man who has legitimized white nationalism. It matters that he [Bannon] is in the White House.”

Bannon, Chief White House strategist and the architect behind President Donald Trump’s Muslim travel ban, reportedly enjoys referring to a little-known 1973 French novel about dark-skinned immigrants who invade a white society. The book, The Camp of the Saints, was written by French author Jean Raspail. The book cover explains the premise: “A chilling novel about the end of the white world.”

Though Pierson turned down a job with the White House, her new role with America First Policies is still communicating the conservative message.

“We are committed to empowering, educating, and mobilizing the voices of tens of millions of Americans who support a more prosperous, safer, and stronger country that allows everyone the opportunity to achieve their own American dream,” according to the organization’s website.

But in Trump’s wealthy world, if his proposed budget is any indication, African-Americans are being systematically purged from the president’s plan for collective prosperity.

What do you think?

PHOTO: Facebook

Like BlackAmericaWeb.com on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

 

Does Katrina Pierson Care About Black People?  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com