By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Donald Trump sought Wednesday to put on display his support among Black Americans during a White House reception held just months before midterm elections.
Trump brought several prominent Black Americans on stage, including Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner and former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, as he hosted the Black History Month reception.
He said he would be awarding Carson, who served as his HUD secretary during his first administration, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
"Ben's getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That's the biggest. That's the biggest. It's the highest award you can have outside of the Congressional Medal of Honor. But it's better because, you know, a lot of people get the Congressional Medal of Honor," he said.
He further appeared to test the waters for a potential deployment of the National Guard to Atlanta, Georgia, the latest effort that he says is aimed at cracking down on crime, but which critics say is an effort to exert power over Democratic-led jurisdictions.
"You need help in Atlanta," he said, prompting a raucous response from the crowd in the East Room. "I'll tell you what. You ought to get them to call me. We could take care of Atlanta so fast."
The event comes with just over eight months before the US holds midterm elections in which the party in power, in this case Republicans, tend to lose ground in Congress, a fact Trump has repeatedly bemoaned.
An average of polling compiled by the Decision Desk HQ website found that Trump has the support of just 23% of Black Americans, with some 74% disapproving of his job performance.