It may be difficult to understand the fears and experiences the African-American community has when it comes to law enforcement without being black, GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump said Monday.
"It's probably something that we really don't know, and maybe we can't feel it unless we're black," Trump told Fox News' Brian Kilmeade on the
"Fox and Friends" program. "There's definitely something going on there also, that has to do with training . . . but there is something going on that maybe, Brian, we can't recognize or we can't see it unless you're black, and it's an experience. There's no question about that."
"But you want to be president for all of America," Kilmeade replied. "How do you address the issues of African-Americans in America if you're a white guy?"
"Well, you have to see and you have to put yourself in their position and you have to see what's going on," said Trump. "But, you know, we're at point now where it's so out of control."
Trump said that he does think that the police of the United States are being treated "very unfairly."
"I hated watching those two events last week," Trump said of police shooting deaths in Dallas and Baton Rouge. "If an incident happens, those things get blown up, you know, and they run for weeks. You know, the thousands and hundreds of thousands of great acts and the great job that they do, nobody gets to see that."
Crime is spinning out of control, and "radical Islam" takes part of the blame.
"He seems to be a member of that group also,"
Trump said of former U.S. Marine Gavin Long, commenting on videos showing that he was a former member of the Nation of Islam.
"It would be wonderful if people could [have] turned him in," Trump said. "He had a lot of hate and you look — I looked at some of his videos, they were vicious and hateful."
And as a nation, the United States needs somebody who can be a "cheerleader," not like President Barack Obama, who has been a "great divider in this country," said Trump.
"I think race relations are the worst they have been," he said. "They're the statistically worse they have been in 18 years. I can tell you they're bad and they haven't been this bad in a long time. And we have somebody that really was in a position to do just the opposite, but this tremendous divide in this country. I see it, everybody sees it."
He said he also agreed with Cleveland police union leader, Stephen Loomis, who said Monday and over the weekend he believes Obama has "blood on his hands" because of his divisive rhetoric on Black Lives Matter and police relations.
"I watched the president and sometimes the words are okay," Trump said. "But you just look at the body language and there's something going on . . . there's just a bad feeling, a lot of bad feeling about him. I see it too. There's a lot of bad feeling about him. "
On Monday, Trump also denied reports that he'd had second thoughts about picking Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate, and that he was upset with The Indianapolis Star for reporting a leak that Pence had been picked.
"The media made a big thing out of nothing," Trump said of his decision to delay the announcement for a day after the deadly attacks in Nice, France on Thursday. "I delayed it for one day and they made that for that reason. Mike Pence was not my first choice. He was my only choice. I spoke to he and his wife the night before. Once I said that, it was over."
He said he is also looking forward to seeing wife Melania open the Republican National Convention tonight with a speech.
"She's going to be speaking about her love of the country," Trump said of his wife. "She worked hard. She came into the country. She gained legal status, as the expression goes. And she's a terrific person and a terrific woman. And she is going to, I'll bet she gives a great speech and she's worked hard on it."
Related Stories:
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.