Donald Trump compared the controversial Republican lieutenant governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson, to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, adding that the politician who mocked survivors of school shootings is “better than” than MLK Jr.
Robinson, a pastor, has come under fire in the past for using antisemitic tropes and statements disparaging women, Muslims, and the LGBTQ community.
During a speech in 2021, Robinson said Black people are the ones that should be paying reparations. “Nobody owes you anything,” he said. “If anybody owes, it’s you. Because you’ve been the benefactor of freedom, you are the one that owes.”
So, naturally, Robinson caught the eye of Trump who endorsed him for governor at a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina on Saturday ahead of the Super Tuesday contest.
“This is Martin Luther King on steroids,” Trump said of Robinson at the rally.
“I told that to Mark,” Trump continued. “I said, I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.”
Trump’s comments on Saturday is the second time he has compared the controversial lieutenant governor to MLK Jr.
“First, it was the voice,” Trump said of Robinson in December during an event at Mar-a-Lago. “And then, I said, ‘You know what, I swear, I think you’re better than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”
Trump was recently criticized for his comments about wooing Black voters with his indictments and mugshot because like him Black people get indicted a lot.
“And then I got indicted a second time and then a third time and a fourth time!” Trump said at the event. “And a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against. And they actually viewed me as– I’m being discriminated against. It’s been pretty amazing.”
