Donald Trump tries to woo black voters again

Donald Trump has continued to show signs of trying to reach out to new supporters he’ll need if he is to beat Hillary Clinton to the White House.

The US Republican presidential candidate made another direct appeal to black voters to back him at a rally in Virginia – as he had at an earlier meeting in Michigan.

Referring to the 19th century Republican president who abolished slavery, Trump said the Grand Old Party should be their natural home.

“The GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln… And I want our party to be the home of the African-American voter once again,” the candidate said to cheers from the audience.

Trump claimed on Friday he could win 95 percent of the African American vote at the end of his first term in office.

Opinion polls put his current level of support at just one or two percent.

“You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth are unemployed,” continued Trump in his message to black voters. “What the hell do you have to lose?”

Among a barrage of negative media coverage in recent days, an investigation by the New York Times claims the tycoon’s companies have more than double the amount of debt than he has disclosed.