Fact Check: What Have Biden and Trump Done for Black People?

This story will be updated.

As America watched the first presidential debate Thursday night, some observers said President Joe Biden’s performance failed the vibe check and former President Donald Trump kept lying.

But what really raised eyebrows was Trump’s response when asked about the candidates’ appeal to Black voters.

“The fact is that his big kill on the Black people is the millions of people that he’s allowed to come in through the border,” the former president said. “They’re taking Black jobs now and it could be 18, it could be 19 and even 20 million people. They’re taking Black jobs, and they’re taking Hispanic jobs, and you haven’t seen it yet, but you’re gonna see something that’s going to be the worst in our history.”

The NAACP asked a simple question on X: “What exactly are Black and Hispanic Jobs!?!”

And #BlackJob was quickly trending.

“We’re still trying to figure out what a #BlackJob is? Because if it’s showing up every day to build a democracy that continues to undermine us, we’ve been doing that since 1619. Quote this with your ‘Black job,’” the NAACP also posted on X.

It’s not clear what impact this debate will have on voters’ pick for their next president, but in the meantime, here’s what else they said on policies and issues that impact Black voters. Check out this fact-check from PolitiFact:

Trump: “We now have the largest deficit in the history of our country.”

False. The largest deficit in the history of the United States happened in fiscal year 2020, when Trump was president. The pandemic was an extraordinary historical occurrence that prompted an aggressive, and temporary, government response.

Biden: “Black unemployment is the lowest level it’s been in a long, long time.”

Mostly True. The record for low Black unemployment rate was set under Biden in April 2023, at 4.8%. It has risen modestly since then to 6.1% in May 2024, but that’s still lower than it was for much of the first two years under Trump. 

Overall, Trump had success on this statistic, too. When Biden set the record, the record he was breaking was Trump’s: 5.3% in August and September 2019.

Biden: The U.S. has “more small Black businesses than at any time.”

True. U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve Board datasets found record levels of Black business ownership in 2021 and 2022, the most recent years available. This continued a rise that began under Trump.

Another metric, the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, conducted every three years, tracks with what the Census Bureau found. The 2022 Fed survey, the first conducted since 2019, found that 11% of Black households held equity in a business, far higher than the previous record of 6.6% in 2016 and the 4.8% recorded in 2019. And a study by the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research found that the share of Black workers who are self-employed increased by 50% from 2019 to 2023.

Independent analyses show that some of Biden’s policies, such as changes to the Paycheck Protection Program, laid the groundwork for the increases. The pandemic-era initiative lent businesses money to keep workers paid when public health restrictions limited businesses’ operations.

Read More: ‘Project 2025’ and the Movement That Could Erode Black Equality

Trump: Biden called Black Americans “superpredators.”

False. In a 1993 Senate floor speech, Biden spoke about doing something for young people who did not have supervision, structure or opportunities. He said the country needed to focus on them, because otherwise, a portion of them would “become the predators 15 years from now.”

Biden did not single out any racial or ethnic group. In a 1998 speech at an attorneys general conference, Biden also used the term “predators.” He didn’t say he was talking about Black youth.

Biden: Trump “wants to take away the ACA again,” referring to the Affordable Care Act. 

Half True. In 2016, Trump campaigned on a promise to repeal and replace the ACA. In the White House, Trump supported a failed effort to do just that. In the years since, he has repeatedly stated his intent to dismantle the health care law, including in campaign stops and social media posts throughout 2023.

In March, however, Trump walked back this stance, writing on Truth Social that he “isn’t running to terminate” the ACA but to make it “better” and “less expensive.”

Trump hasn’t said how he would do this, and health care policy experts said it’s difficult to know where he stands without a detailed plan.

Trump: Biden “allowed millions of people to come in here from prisons, jails, and mental institutions.”

Pants on Fire! Immigration officials arrested about 103,700 noncitizens with criminal convictions (whether in the U.S. or abroad) from fiscal years 2021 to 2024, federal data shows. That accounts for people stopped at and between ports of entry.

Not everyone was let in. The term “noncitizens” includes people who may have had legal immigration status in the U.S. but were not U.S. citizens.

The data reflects the people that the federal government knows about, but it’s inexhaustive. However, immigration experts said despite the data’s limitations, there is no evidence to support Trump’s statement.