Former Black Panther leader David Hilliard showered praise on Donald Trump during a recent interview, saying the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was a “friend of African Americans” — only for his grandson to later claim his relative suffers from cognitive problems and was speaking about the past rather than the current political climate.
Hilliard, the former chief of staff and a founding member of the radical black liberation group, said he knew Trump in the 1960s and bizarrely alleged that the fledgling real estate mogul “owned all of Harlem” and funded the Black Panther Party in its heyday.
“Trump is a person who is a decent man and he supported the Black Panther Party,” Hilliard said in a Sunday TikTok interview with influencer Carol Mitchell. “He was someone who gave us money and Trump was a decent guy.”
“Trump’s a friend of African Americans … He’s not a racist. He’s not a racist, fascist, white man. He supported the black people,” he went on.
Hilliard then reiterated Trump “likes Africans in America” and “black folks.”
“He’s always been a friend of black people. That’s how I know him.”
Hilliard’s grandson Eric Jones heavily criticized Mitchell on X Tuesday, saying she made the interview public “without any permission” with his grandfather, who Jones said “suffers from dementia.”
Jones, sitting next to Hilliard, added his grandfather’s comments were “purely speaking in terms of the past.”
“That is not a nod of support to any of today’s political climate, and with Donald Trump and with any other candidate,” Jones said, to which Hilliard added: “That is correct.”
In a separate post, Jones said his grandfather “does not even know Trump is a politician. He has been dealing with cognitive issues since 2014. He can only recall the past.”
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The Trump campaign has tried to capture more of the black vote ahead of the 2024 election against President Biden, and especially leaned into outreach in traditionally Democratic areas, illustrated by Trump’s recent rally in the South Bronx.
Polls indicate the 45th president gaining record levels of support with black voters this election cycle, with a New York Times poll last month showing 23% backed the Republican — the highest percentage of black support for any GOP presidential candidate since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In 2020, Biden received 92% of the black vote, according to the Pew Research Center.
Biden campaign pollster Jefrey Pollack admitted that the Times survey had raised concern among the president’s supporters.
“All of the data consistently shows that our campaign needs to do better with younger voters, with black voters and with Hispanic voters,” Pollack told The New Republic “Daily Blast” podcast, adding: “If Donald Trump were able to win 20% of black voters and essentially tie among Hispanic voters, it would be the greatest performance with non-white voters since the Civil Rights Act. So I think that feels a bit aggressive and excessive.”
The Biden campaign launched ads targeting black voters ahead of Trump’s Bronx rally, reminding minority New Yorkers of his past remarks calling for the execution of the “Central Park Five,” who have since been exonerated of the 1989 sexual assault of a jogger in the Manhattan green space.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Post.