Forbes deleted an article Sunday titled, “Will Surviving Gunfire Be Donald Trump’s Next Appeal To Black Voters?”
The article, written by Forbes contributor and “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) expert” Shaun Harper, was published a few hours after a shooter attempted to assassinate former President Trump during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
In the article, Harper floated the idea that Trump may use surviving the shooting as a new way to connect to Black voters.
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Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by Secret Service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
“’And the Blacks, they love me because they know the terrifying sound of gunshots,’ isn’t a claim that Trump has ‘actually’ made. Hopefully, he doesn’t. But it isn’t all that unthinkable,” Harper wrote in the article that was captured by the Wayback Machine.
He pointed to Trump’s comments from a South Carolina rally last August where he suggested that Black voters “embraced” his mugshot that was taken in Fulton County jail in Georgia.
“The mug shot, we’ve all seen the mug shot, and you know who embraced it more than anybody else? The Black population. It’s incredible. You see Black people walking around with my mug shot, you know they do shirts,” Trump said.
A deleted Forbes article claimed that Trump might use his raised fist after being shot to appeal to Black voters. (Photo by Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images | Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Harper also added Trump could claim pumping his fist in the air after being struck by a bullet was a homage to the “Black Power Salute” seen in the well-known 1968 Olympics photo as well as the 2020 George Floyd marches.
“Let’s hope not. That would be revisionist history,” Harper wrote. “Another racially problematic kinship narrative is unlikely to make Black voters see Trump as one of them. And it most certainly won’t fix the gun violence crisis in rural, suburban, or urban places in which too many Americans are unnecessarily placed at risk of being shot.”
Another capture of the article from Sunday deleted many of these paragraphs but kept the suggestion Trump could still use the shooting as a campaign strategy.
Forbes deleted an article referencing the assassination attempt against former President Trump. (Wayback Machine)
“Hopefully, being shot doesn’t become a similarly problematic strategy to link Trump with an experience that far too many (not all) Black people have,” Harper wrote.
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The entire piece was eventually deleted. Fox News Digital reached out to Forbes for a comment but has yet to receive a response.