Did Former BLM Rhode Island Leader Endorse Trump for President?

In October and November 2023, comments by Mark Fisher, a former leader of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) chapter in Rhode Island, went viral in which he endorsed former U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of the presidential election of 2024.

BLM Founder and senior director of Black Lives Matter in Rhode Island endorses Trump for president in 2024.pic.twitter.com/L3AbrEOW18

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) November 28, 2023

In a Nov. 6, 2023, interview with radio host Kim Iverson, Fisher said in response to her question about why he supported Trump: “Because everybody else sucks. […] You know, I like Trump personally, and I think right now who we have sitting in the Oval Office [Joe Biden] is just a deep disappointment. I deeply have disdain for him, and I really dislike the vice president [Kamala Harris] as well.”

Given that Fisher is a former leader and co-founder of a BLM chapter in Rhode Island, and that he also expressed his support for Trump’s 2024 presidential candidacy, we rate this claim as True.

Fisher reiterated these views in an interview on Fox News on Nov. 28, 2023. He has expressed support for conservative views before as well, including in August 2023, when he called the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol rioters “political prisoners” and said he stood in solidarity with them. However, in a Nov. 20, 2023, interview with political commentator Roland S. Martin, Fisher described himself as an independent, without a party affiliation.

He also spoke out in support of members of the Proud Boys movement who participated in the Capitol riots. He told The Epoch Times in October 2023, “They’re lambs led to slaughter to be sacrificed as an example for all who might want to dissent in the future.”

Fisher’s ties to the wider Black Lives Matter movement don’t necessarily mean that others in that movement agree with him. BLM has been described by the Library of Congress as a largely decentralized network of activists in the U.S. and around the world, with no formal hierarchy. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter was originated in 2013 by three Black organizers, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. The movement’s website describes itself as “a member-led global network of more than 40 chapters.” BLM is best known for organizing protests against police brutality, racial profiling, and racial inequality in the criminal justice system.

According to an interview Fisher did with The Epoch Times in October 2023, he was a co-founder of BLM’s Rhode Island chapter but had stepped down from his leadership role to form his own group called Black Lives Matter Incorporated. The timing around when he left BLM’s Rhode Island network to form this new group was unclear. BLM Incorporated, according to The Epoch Times, appears to focus on entrepreneurship education and financial empowerment for Black people, and says it is not affiliated with any political party.

According to the caption of the YouTube clip for Iverson’s November 2023 radio show, Fisher stepped down from his leadership position at the older BLM soon after he began making his opinions about Trump known: “He’s been making waves lately after endorsing President Donald Trump saying he is ‘THE BEST CANDIDATE we have.’ Fisher has since resigned from his leadership position at BLM Rhode Island and is now the founder and executive director of Maryland’s BLM Incorporated.”

Fisher argued in his interview with Iverson that he did not feel “alone” as a BLM leader who supported Trump.

“I feel like the tide is starting to turn,” Fisher said. “I feel like a lot of Black people are starting to pivot off of that Democratic plantation. For so long, we’ve been slaves to that party. Actually, we’ve been mental slaves, afraid to get off of that plantation.”

“That party, they don’t value our vote,” he added. “Their policies are basically racist policies. I believe that it’s a racist party that strikes at the heart of the Black family and the nuclear family in general. And I believe Donald Trump, he’s the opposite. […] He’s not going to be a hypocrite and stab you in the back like the Democratic Party loves to do.”

Although Fisher was part of a larger BLM movement via Rhode Island, he does not necessarily speak for what is a vast movement with many members spread across the world with their own distinct viewpoints. However, reports from late 2023 did show support for Biden waning among Black voters, with recent polls finding that if elections were held at the time of this writing, around 22% of the Black electorate would support Trump, compared with the 8% he pulled in the 2020 elections.

Sources