Last week, Ice Cube was met with confusion and criticism after a member of Donald Trump’s campaign teamed revealed the rapper had advised the president on his “Platinum Plan,” a nationwide agenda for Black Americans. Cube defended his meeting with Trump, explaining that he had not endorsed the president’s reelection, but did meet with his administration to discuss “The Platinum Plan” and his own “Contract with Black America.”
“I will advise anybody on the planet who has the power to help Black Americans close the enormous wealth gap,” he wrote on Twitter.
Cube and the president’s “Platinum Plan” includes initiatives aimed at correcting racial injustice, prison and policing reform, employment opportunities for African Americans and more. However, according to The Grio, the Congressional Black Caucus is now saying the plan looks similar to their own — which Trump never bothered to carry out.
“The President of the United States has never in his four years of being there been an advocate or help anything get accomplished and he will not get anything accomplished this time,” Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee told the outlet. “Everything that was in the Platinum Plan has already been proposed by the Congressional Black Caucus and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”
Lee said that after Trump was elected into office, the Caucus attempted to meet with him on numerous occasions to discuss their own 125-page proposal about issues facing Black America. However, they were ignored. The Caucus also introduced their Jobs and Justice Act of 2020 legislation this September, which includes similar initiatives.
“They have not been a friend of poor people, working people, small businesses and they certainly have not been a friend of African Americans and people of color,” Jackson added.
Ice Cube wrote on Twitter that he had reached out to both Trump’s and Joe Biden’s campaign teams, but that Biden’s had said they wanted to hold off on discussions until after the election. Following the backlash Cube received for working with Trump, Biden’s team released a statement.
“Donald Trump has been president for nearly four years and does not have a record to stand on when it comes to the Black community — but we are supposed to believe he now all of a sudden has a plan three weeks before the election?” Biden’s Director of Strategic Communications Kamau Marshall said.