Trump Announces 'Platinum Plan' to Invest in Black Communities

Trump Announces 'Platinum Plan' to Invest in Black Communities
President Donald J. Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020 |

President Donald Trump announced his administration's "Platinum Plan", composed of four pillars and eleven promises, which pledges to increase access to capital in Black communities by almost $500 billion. 

In an appeal to Black voters before the election, Trump's two-page plan promises to further promote "President Trump's Four Pillars": "opportunity", "security," "prosperity" and "fairness."

"Together we'll fulfill our contract with Black Americans and will pass the Platinum Plan into law and we'll do it quickly and easily," Trump said at the campaign event in Georgia on Friday. 

Trump called the plan "something that people talk about for a long time to come." 

The president appealed to voters saying, "When I ran for president four years ago, I looked at the dismal and shameful record of the Democrat Party and asked black Americans, 'What the hell do you have to lose? Today I want to share what you have to gain from voting Republican on Nov. 3."

The plan primarily expands on initiatives already taken by the Trump administration, such as the Opportunity Zones initiative, his signature anti-poverty program which incentivizes and rewards investments made in up to 25% of a state's low-income communities. Trump has claimed that the initiative has introduced "$100 billion of new investment ... into 9,000 of our most distressed neighborhoods" and created "countless jobs." 

According to the plan, the president promises that if re-elected he would not only increase access to capital in black communities by almost $500 billion but also create 3 million new jobs for the black community, create 500,000 new black-owned businesses, give black churches the ability to compete for resources for their communities, enhance financial literacy and homeownership opportunities for the black communities, and bring better healthcare to address historic disparities. 

"The Platinum Plan is a bold vision that we can and really will achieve over the next four years," he stated. "We will be able to do it, if not sooner."

Trump said that the plan includes "investing in community development, financial institutions, and minority depository institutions" to ensure the $500 in increased capital for Black communities.

The plan also vows to follow up on the First Step Act, a widely popular criminal justice reform bill from 2018, by committing to "working on a Second Step Act." 

Trump further stressed his dedication to justice: "[We will] bring greater fairness to the justice system. ... We will create a national clemency project to right wrongful prosecutions and pardon individuals who have reformed their life."

The president also vowed to institute school choice for every parent, invest in medical treatments for conditions like diabetes, and bring back manufacturing jobs.

"[We will] end Democrat policies that bring in low-wage foreign workers from overseas to replace black workers in our inner cities," he said. "Joe Biden cares more about the citizens of foreign countries than he does about black Americans living in our own country." 

The Platinum Plan, on the other hand, uses tax cuts to grow minority businesses by hoping to stimulate hiring and investment.

The plan also describes that Trump's administration will "encourage onshoring and development of domestic manufacturing to increase supply chain business development and employment," "examine barriers to employment including fees, occupational licensing, arrest record inaccuracy, and expungement" and "increase activity in opportunity zones including benefits for local hires."

Other details include an investment of $20 billion toward broadband and internet access, designating Juneteenth as a federal holiday, and plans to "prosecute the KKK and Antifa as terrorist organizations."

The Platinum Plan also calls for federal, state, and local community partners to "close failing schools to replace with full school choice and education opportunity to put American parents back in control over their children's futures."