President Donald Trump managed to bring up George Floyd, a black man who died at the hands of a white police officer, into his victory lap over the decline in U.S. unemployment in May during a press briefing on Friday.
“Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country,” Trump declared in the Rose Garden at the White House. “This is a great day for him, it’s a great day for everybody.”
“This is a great day in terms of equality,” he added.
On the contrary: While the Labor Department’s monthly report for May does show that 2.5 million jobs were added and that the unemployment rate dropped from 14.7 percent in April to 13.3 percent overall last month, unemployment ticked up by 0.1 percent for black Americans and 0.5 percent for Asian-Americans.
Trump refused to respond to those figures when PBS NewsHour reporter Yamiche Alcindor pointed out the disparity.
“How was that a victory?” she asked.
“Ugh, you are something,” Trump snapped.
The remarks come as Trump is criticized for failing to properly address protests across the country against the police brutality aimed disproportionately at black Americans like Floyd.
Floyd, who was detained for allegedly using counterfeit money to buy food, died after a white officer knelt on his neck for nearly 10 minutes as Floyd repeatedly shouted that he could not breathe.
Watch Trump below:
Trump on improved employment numbers: "Hopefully George [Floyd] is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country." pic.twitter.com/hExIHsdmIZ
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) June 5, 2020
Trump refuses to answer a question about increased unemployment for black Americans pic.twitter.com/7ZvVCHTt80
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) June 5, 2020
