The man Donald Trump once referred to as ‘my African American,’ is frustrated over what he calls the president’s ‘white superiority complex,’ and is leaving the Republican party.
Gregory Cheadle, 62, told PBS NewsHour Thursday that after almost two decades as a Republican, he has decided to run for a House seat as an independent in 2020.
Cheadle gained national attention during the 2016 presidential campaign, when then-candidate Trump pointed to him during a rally in Redding, California.
‘Look at my African American over here. Look at him. Are you the greatest?’ he said of Cheadle.
The real estate broker said he now feels the current administration is using black people as ‘political pawns’ – but didn’t go so far to call the president ‘racist.’
‘President Trump is a rich guy who is mired in white privilege to the extreme,’ Cheadle said. ‘Republicans are too sheepish to call him out on anything and they are afraid of losing their positions and losing any power themselves.’
Notorious moment: At a rally in Redding, CA, in June 2016, Trump pointed at Gregory Cheadle and said: ‘Look at my African American over here. Look at him. Are you the greatest?’
Leaving the Republicans: Gregory Cheadle is running for a House seat in California as an independent – after almost 20 years in the GOP. He says the party is failing to shake off white privilege
Cheadle, who supports the Republican approach to the economy, said the final straw was when he watch Republicans defend the president after he told the so-called ‘squad’ of minority congresswomen to ‘go back’ to their countries of origin.
‘Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,’ Trump tweeted of Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley. ‘Then come back and show us how it is done.’
He also said he was turned off to Trump when this summer the president attacked Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings as driving Baltimore, Maryland – a city he represents – into the ground.
The president then called Baltimore a ‘disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess,’ claiming no human being would want to live there.
The White House has defended the president on both counts, claiming neither his attacks on the ‘squad’ of freshmen representatives or Cummings were racially charged.
Cheadle said he wouldn’t use the term ‘racist,’ as others have, but said he believes the president has a ‘white superiority complex.’
Although he initially took the president’s comments as a joke and laughed along with the crowd, Cheadle now says his view of the moment has changed.
Trump was asked about Cheadle’s move when he left the White House Thursday, but said he did not know what the question was about.
‘I’m more critical of it today than I was back then because today I wonder to what extent he said that for political gain or for attention,’ he said.
Cheadle admits that he may have waited too long to leave the Republican party, which he joined in 2001, after Trump became president – but said he was holding out hope in the party.
He hoped the GOP, with Trump as president, would work on challenges facing African Americans like healthcare and wealth disparities.
Cheadle also said he hoped Trump would nominate a more diverse batch of judges.
‘When you look at his appointments for the bench: White, white, white, white white, white, white,’ Cheadle said. ‘That to me is really damning to everybody else because no one else gets a chance because he’s thinking that the whites are superior, period.’
Trump, Cheadle says, has a ‘pro-white’ agenda.
As a born-again independent, Cheadle says he would be open to voting for candidates of any party as long as he feels their platforms will help advance the African American community.
His run in 2020 will be Cheadle’s fifth attempt to earn a seat in Congress. In 2018, he ran for the same seat he’s seeking in 2020 in California’s First Congressional District.
Trump was asked about Cheadle’s move when he left the White House Thursday, but said he did not know what the question was about.
‘I have tremendous African American support. I am at my all time high. I don’t think I’ve ever had the support I have now,’ he said.
‘We’ve had the best numbers we’ve ever had for African Americans in terms of employment and unemployment. So I think we’re going to do very well.’