Donald Trump Confuses Viewers Comparing Himself to Abraham Lincoln Amid George Floyd Protests

President Donald Trump raised some eyebrows on Friday in a new interview with Fox News‘ Harris Faulkner. When the subject turned to race, Trump said that he believes he has “done more for the Black community than any other president,” noting that President Abraham Lincoln could be a possible exception. When pressed for details on this, however, he left many viewers confused.

Faulkner brought up Trump’s effort to stimulate the economy in low-income areas, using this as a transition into a more broad discussion of race, including the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests. The president responded: “I think I’ve done more for the black community than any other president. And let’s take a pass on Abraham Lincoln, because he did good, although it’s always questionable, you know, in other words, the end result.” Even Faulkner was puzzled by this, since the “end result” of Lincoln’s presidency was the emancipation of slaves in the United States.

“Well, we are free, Mr. President. He did pretty well,” she said, laughing. The president answered: “we are free. Well, you understand what I mean? You know, I got to take a pass on Honest Abe, as we call it.”

Trump seemed to mean be trying to say that he had done more for the Black community than anyone besides Lincoln, without expressly saying so. Falkner pressed on: “but you say you’ve done more than anybody,” and the president responded by pointing to some of his actions in the Oval Office.

“Look: criminal justice reform. Nobody else could’ve done it. I’ve done it. I did it,” he said. “I didn’t get get a lot of notoriety. “And the fact the people I did it for then go on television and thank everybody but me and they needed me to get it done. And I got it done.”

All in all, this segment of Trump and Faulkner’s long-form interview did not sit well with many viewers on social media. Many posted their outrage over Trump’s claims about his accomplishments, while others shot back with the glowing records of other presidents. Some simply mocked Trump, believing that it was hubris for him to think he had really accomplished so much. Here’s a breakdown of the kinds of responses Trump’s remarks got.

Parody

Disbelief

Outrage

Comparison

Confederacy

Confusion

Convictions