Trump’s ‘African-American’ Is Leaving The Republican Party

Gregory Cheadle, the man President Trump called "my African-American," speaks during an interview on CNN. (Screenshot: CNN/YouTube)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Gregory Cheadle briefly rose to fame in 2016 when President Donald Trump infamously singled him out as “my African-American” at a campaign rally in an effort to prove he had support from the black community.

Now he’s done.

PBS NewsHour reported on Thursday that Cheadle, who’s running for Congress in California’s 1st District, is leaving the Republican Party to run as an independent instead.

Cheadle told PBS NewsHour that he became disillusioned by what he called the GOP’s “pro-white agenda,” and the party rallying around Trump after his marathon of racist attacks against Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and “The Squad.”

Though Cheadle wouldn’t call Trump “racist” outright, he did say the President has a “white superiority complex” that’s led him to nominate white men to the judicial bench almost exclusively.

“To stay on this ship now, as a black Republican, I couldn’t do it,” he said.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for j.dave j.dave says:

    And up to today things were going so well!

  2. Interesting - how much play will this get? What impact might this have on the rest? I’m not in favor of a mass exodus just because one guy bailed, but could others, reading this, begin to question their own motives for staying GOP?

  3. Dude’s a bit slow on the uptake but he finally got the picture.

  4. “Cheadle told PBS NewsHour that he became disillusioned by what he called the GOP’s ‘pro-white agenda,’ and the party rallying around Trump after his marathon of racist attacks…”

  5. Avatar for dmcg dmcg says:

    giphy

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

104 more replies

Participants

Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for dave_adams Avatar for drriddle Avatar for bonvivant Avatar for greylady Avatar for mrf Avatar for pshah Avatar for tena Avatar for texastwostep Avatar for misterneutron Avatar for joriep Avatar for birdford Avatar for redemptionsong Avatar for tpr Avatar for coimmigrant Avatar for dannydorko Avatar for maximus Avatar for pike_bishop Avatar for the_loan_arranger Avatar for justruss Avatar for outis Avatar for occamscoin Avatar for dogmaalsocatma

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: