These are still small numbers. And it's the kind of poll that could easily be a statistical blip. But it's still intriguing.
A poll taken on April 22, 2018 had Trump’s approval rating among black men at 11 percent, while the same poll on April 29, 2018 pegged the approval rating at 22 percent. It should be noted that Reuters only sampled slightly under 200 black males each week and slightly under 3,000 people overall.
Trump experienced a similar jump in approval among black people overall, spiking from 8.9 percent on April 22 to 16.5 percent on April 29.
Black males were also far more likely to say that they had “mixed feelings” about the president. On the 22nd, 1.5 percent said they had mixed feelings, while 7.1 percent said the same on the 29th.
Is that the Kanye West effect?
Trump's ratings were rising in general. So it's not too shocking that they're rising among black men. And black men, much like white men, are more likely to be Republican than their female counterparts. But the rise is also disproportionate, so it could be the Kanye West effect. Or a blip. We'll see if it sustains itself. And then we'll know.
Even before this, Trump did better with black people than Republican presidential candidates tend to. And while there wasn't the significant momentum that some predicted, the interesting thing about him is that the opposition from black voters was softer than it usually is. And this is another example of that.
Black opposition to Republicans tends to be hard. It runs counter to national trends. They tend to be the most dogmatic Democrats.
They're still definite D's, but the opposition has softened. And a major signifier of that is the perception that a Republican politician is racist. That's usually a signifier of firm political opposition. There hasn't been that sense with Trump in the black community. The reasons are likely more cultural than political. Unlike previous Republican candidates, Trump came from a geographical and cultural position that was very familiar to black people. There was no sense that he was an outsider. And no suspicion that he was hiding anything. Because he expressed everything.
That doesn't necessarily mean that black voters will switch parties in any significant numbers, but lower hostility already yields all sorts of electoral benefits, like lower turnout and less backing for very divisive politicians like Rep. Maxine Waters.