Black Panther Party founding member David Hilliard explains why he’s endorsing Trump

A former high-ranking member of the infamous Black Panther Party surprisingly supported the recently convicted man Donald Trump and emphasized that the presidential candidate is “not a racist.”

David Hilliard, a founding member of the civil rights organization, said in a TikTok posted Monday that he met Trump in the 1960s New York City and called the former president a “decent man.”

In the past, critics have accused Trump of being racist. But he says popularity among black voters has increased dramatically recent poll.

In Carol Mitchell’s video, an 82-year-old Hilliard said Trump is an ally of African Americans.

“Trump is a decent human being, and he supported the Black Panther Party,” Hilliard said. “He was someone who gave us money.”

David Hilliard, the former chief of staff of the Black Panther Party, said Trump is a ‘decent man’ and ‘not racist’

“He is a friend of African Americans,” he said. ‘I mean he’s not a racist. He is not a racist, fascist, white man. He supported black people.”

“I think Trump is qualified and is a very decent approach to having someone represent America,” Hilliard said.

Hilliard, who served as chief of staff for the Black Panther Party, said he met Trump while a student in New York and claimed the former president “owned all of Harlem.”

Trump and his father Fred had one discrimination case filed against their real estate company in 1973 that alleged African Americans and Puerto Ricans were being systematically excluded from apartments.

The ex-president denied that there was any discrimination based on race. However, in his own 1987 book, he said certain types of tenants were avoided.

“What we have not done is rent to welfare businesses, white or black,” he wrote, according to Politico.

FBI documents show agents spoke to tenants, management and employees — as they tried to determine whether it was making it more difficult for minorities to rent from the Trump Management Company.

One of the interviews, conducted with an aide to Fred Trump, detailed how the president’s father wanted to “drive away the blacks who were in the building.”

Another interview was conducted in 1974 with a former doorman at a Trump building in Brooklyn.

The man told a supervisor, “told me that if a black person came to 2650 Ocean Parkway and inquired about an apartment for rent, and he, that’s [redacted] wasn’t there at the time, I had to tell him that the rent was twice as high as it actually was, so he couldn’t afford the apartment.’

The files also include cease and desist orders alleging discriminatory practices and a ruling from the New York State Human Rights Commission.

Hilliard said he met Trump when he was a college student in New York in the 1960s and claimed the former president “owned all of Harlem.”

Trump Management Company, as well as Fred and Donald, entered into a consent decree in 1975 settling the lawsuit.

It did not contain any admission of wrongdoing regarding the allegations.

However, it did include a series of safeguards to ensure that apartments were rented without regard to race, religion, sex, color, religion, gender or national origin. These were not implemented in the future.

Trump was convicted last week on all 34 felony counts of forging hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

However, Hilliard claimed that the guilty verdict was due to Trump’s relationship with the black community.

‘[He was convicted] because Trump loves Africans in America, he loves black people, Hilliard said.