Woman Who Went Viral for Hugging Trump at Chick-fil-A Explains Why Black Voters Support Him

Former President Donald Trump hugs supporter Michaelah Montgomery (R) at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta, Ga., on April 10, 2024. Megan Varner/Getty Images

A woman who recently went viral for hugging former President Donald Trump at a Chick-fil-A in Georgia and telling him not to worry about dishonest media coverage has revealed why she thinks black voters are increasingly backing the former president in the upcoming election.

President Trump met with supporters at the restaurant in Atlanta earlier this week, with a video capturing the moment that Michaelah Montgomery, a political consultant and founder of Conserve the Culture, expressed her support for the former president.

“I don’t care what the media tells you, Mr. Trump, we support you,” she says in the video, with President Trump giving her a smile and a hug in response.

Later, as the video of the encounter went viral, Ms. Montgomery sat for an interview on Fox News, in which she explained why black voters are increasingly flocking to the former president.

“They feel like he’s honest. They feel like this is somebody who, while we might not agree with how he says things, how he goes about things, at least he’s telling us what it is,” Ms. Montgomery said.

“We don’t feel like this is a snake in the grass waiting for his chance to bite us,” she continued. “This is somebody who’s telling us this is what my plan is. Here’s how I plan to execute it.”

“They just feel like he’s more relatable,” Ms. Montgomery added. “They really feel like this is somebody who’s talking to them and not just saying what they want to hear.”

President Trump took to Truth Social to express his appreciation for Ms. Montgomery’s remarks.

“Thank you! Together, we will Make America Great Again!” the former president wrote.

Ms. Montgomery’s remarks come on the heels of a series of polls indicating that black voters have sharply boosted their support for President Trump in the current election cycle.

Black Voters Breaking for Trump

Black Americans, who have often been entrenched Democrat voters, have both anecdotally and statistically been breaking away from supporting President Joe Biden in recent months and appear to be increasingly throwing their weight behind President Trump.

A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed a staggering jump from the 4 percent of black voters who said in October 2020 that they would vote for then-candidate Trump, compared to a whopping 23 percent who said in February 2024 they plan to vote for him this November.

The stunning 19-percent increase in black voter support for President Trump comes as a majority (57 percent) said they see the country under President Biden heading in the wrong direction.

Recent polling by The Economist shows that, while white voter support for the former president has remained steady, racial-minority groups (long a staple of Democrat backing) have been turning away from the incumbent.

The Economist found the strongest support for President Trump among the youngest (18-24) black voters, with 21 percent of such women and 33 percent of such men saying they plan to vote for him.

And while 35 percent of black voters who identify as conservative voted for President Trump in 2020, the former president has increased this support to 46 percent of this cohort expressing their support for him.

This comes as support for President Trump among Latino voters has also surged in recent weeks, according to a recent Axios/Ipsos poll.

When Latinos who intend to vote in the November presidential election were asked who they plan to vote for, 31 percent said President Biden and 28 percent said President Trump. That’s a difference of just 3 percentage points.

However, given the poll’s 3.6 percent margin of error, this means that it’s technically possible that President Trump could actually be leading his main rival among Latino voters by up to 0.6 percentage points.

The poll also showed that President Trump is ahead of the incumbent among Latinos on the their top three most worrying issues: inflation, crime, and immigration.

Why Are Black Voters Breaking for Trump?

Three main factors appear to be spurring black voters to shift toward President Trump, according to a number of interviewees who spoke to The Epoch Times: the economy, the criminal justice system, and the influence of other black people expressing their support in a public way.

Mark Fisher, co-founder of a Black Lives Matter (BLM) group in Rhode Island, told The Epoch Times in an interview in December that he publicly declared his support for the former president because he felt compelled to “clear a path” for other pro-Trump black voters who may be reluctant to discuss their preferences openly.

Marv Neal, a 52-year-old black man who hosts a weekly radio show on Boston’s “Urban Heat” radio station, told The Epoch Times in December that he hadn’t yet decided who he would vote for in 2024, but added that he’s decidedly Trump-curious.

“Just because you’re a Democrat doesn’t mean you’re going to get my vote,” he said.

Mr. Neal said he initially didn’t support President Trump’s tough stance on immigration but, over time, he’s come to realize that more strict border security preventing illegal immigrants from pouring into the country benefits American citizens.

In her interview on Fox News, Ms. Montgomery said that members of the black community often face pressure not to support the former president.

“I really appreciate that we were able to not only let him know that regardless of what social media says … I know they’re trying to make us think we’re supposed to hate you, but we don’t,” Ms. Montgomery said, recalling her interaction with President Trump.

“And additionally, it was a learning experience for my students because they were able to see and experience firsthand how the media can warp that perception of an opinion or a person.”

The Biden campaign did not return a request for comment on this story.

Janice Hisle contributed to this report.