Toward the end of a rally in the Bronx on Thursday that his campaign staged to try to bolster and highlight his support among Black and Hispanic voters, former President Donald J. Trump called upon two hip-hop artists who have been accused of participating in violent gang warfare fueled in part by their music.
The rappers, Sheff G and Sleepy Hallow, were among several guests invited to voice their support for Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. After they did so, Mr. Trump expressed his gratitude, and then complimented Sheff G’s glittering jewel-encrusted grill. “I like those teeth. I want to find out where you did — I got to get my teeth like that,” he said. “I want that to happen to me.”
But Mr. Trump — who earlier in his speech had vowed to restore the rule of law in New York City, denounced urban crime and touted his allegiance to the police — did not address the charges the two men are facing: counts of conspiracy to commit murder and weapons possession.
Presidential candidates typically try to distance themselves from people accused of violent crimes. But the joint appearance, which was clipped and shared on social media by the Trump campaign and many in the hip-hop media ecosystem, was not a one-off event but rather one in a series of Mr. Trump’s blunt and sometimes clumsy overtures to court Black voters, and particularly Black men.
In appealing to Black voters to break with President Biden and the Democrats, Mr. Trump insists that Mr. Biden’s handling of issues like immigration and the economy is disproportionately harming them.
But he has also repeatedly trafficked in stereotypes about Black Americans. Indicted four times and standing trial on felony charges in Manhattan, the former president earlier this year told a group of Black Republicans that the criminal charges he faces were a key reason that Black people liked him. He has also suggested that his popularity among Black people rose when his Atlanta mug shot was published because they could relate to it.