Pardon me, Mr. President

As Trump fishes for more pardons to give, you wonder if he will soon be issuing his own Emancipation Proclamation to rebrand history. In an absurdly ignorant move, Trump offered to pardon Muhammad Ali, blithely unaware that his conviction had been overturned long ago. But, His Trumpness was looking for another high profile pardon in the wake of Jack Johnson and Alice Marie Johnson, which came after WH visits by Sly Stallone and Kim Kardishian. It seems to pay to have friends in Hollywood.

This all part of Trump's new gambit of turning black voters out for him in 2020. It arose after Kanye West's surprising endorsement, or rather re-endorsement, as the rap mogul had first supported Trump back in 2016. At the time, Kanye's buddies chalked it up to fatigue, but he has reappeared fresh and as energetic as ever, ready to stretch his label beyond music and fashion and into architecture. Get ready for Yeezy Home.

While Kanye's heart may seem to be in the right place with his push for affordable housing, his man in the White House is proposing a 20 per cent hike in rents for HUD recipients. However, it doesn't stop Kanye from singing praise for Trump, or getting his wife Kim on board the Trump bandwagon. She was positively "starstruck" by her visit to the White House. Frederick Douglass would be proud!

Trump is convinced he is winning the black community over, even as he lashes out at NFL players over the national anthem. Recently, he disinvited the Eagles to the White House. Yet, he wants NFL players to give him suggestions for future pardons, as he tries to play both sides of the political divide in the warm up to the fall mid-terms.

Maybe he can pardon Leonard Peltier, if he is genuinely interested in those treated unfairly by the justice system. No previous president has been willing to take the chance. This might make up for his horrible decision to advance the Keystone and Dakota pipelines through tribal lands in the eyes of the Native American community. But, I wouldn't hold my breathe. Not a yuge demographic here to work with.

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