Donald Trump has improved and will continue to improve the social and economic status of minority groups

The argument

In his first term as president, Donald Trump achieved record low unemployment levels for Black Americans (5.4%) in 2019 - Trump has also released his Platinum Plan, which outlines his intentions to create 3 million new jobs for the Black community and heavily invest in Black-owned businesses. Trump believes that the best way to reduce racial tensions is to strengthen the economy so that all Americans can prosper - he wants to ensure that everyone can achieve the American Dream. In office, he signed the First Step Act into law, which reduced sentences for those given mandatory minimum sentences and supported reintegration to society. Trump also signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017 which set up ‘opportunity zones’ in high-poverty areas, including many with large populations of colour, that provided tax incentives to invest in these areas and communities. He also secured historic levels of long-term funding for colleges, universities and other institutions that largely serve communities of colour. Trump’s record in office and second term plans show a commitment to improving the economic status of people of colour. This will improve their wellbeing, which will lead to an easing of racial tensions.

Premises

Counter-arguments

This argument assumes that economic inequality is responsible for the racial tensions, but it is only one part of the story. Inequality and discrimination in the criminal justice system, the health care system and in the media are also drivers that cannot be solved by economic measures alone. Trump’s actions in office to improve economic prospects for racial minorities have not succeeded in easing tensions. The First Step Act and Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did not prevent the wave of unrest in 2020 and between 2016 and 2018, hate crimes against Latinos rose by 41%, whilst those against Jews and Muslims also increased.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The items are real and the attribution is what is disputed. Black unemployment reached a record low in 2019 at the end of a decade-long decline that began around 2011, so the trend predates the term; opportunity zones have been criticised in evaluations for directing capital toward areas already improving; and the First Step Act, the strongest item on the list, was a bipartisan bill whose sentencing provisions the administration's own justice department later sought to read narrowly. The Platinum Plan is a campaign promise rather than a record. [Rejecting P2] The bridging claim is the weakest link and is simply asserted. Economic growth and racial tension are not the same variable, and the counter names the obvious test: the period described contained both the improving indicators and the largest protests over racial injustice in decades. Grievances about policing, criminal justice, health care and public rhetoric are not addressed by aggregate economic measures. [Rejecting C] The conclusion is comparative and examines one side only. "Better for race relations" also requires some account of the record on rhetoric and on civil-rights enforcement, which the premises omit entirely — the material on which the opposing case is chiefly built.