Van Jones' Warning to Fellow Democrats, Black Voters: Trump 'Probably Will Win the Presidency

Van Jones, a CNN contributor and former aide to President Barack Obama offered a dire warning to fellow Democrats, claiming Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump "probably will win the presidency" in November.

Jones argued that Trump hasn't been breaking the rules but has instead been "conforming" to the new rules of engagement, citing his skilled use of social media, his mastery of reality television and his ability to appeal to African-American voters will likely lead the billionaire businessman to win the presidency this fall.

CNN's Van Jones attends the CNN Worldwide All-Star 2014 Winter TCA Party at Langham Hotel on January 10, 2014 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Angela Weiss/Getty Images)

"Everything that Trump is doing conforms to the rules of social media," he said in a Facebook video posted late last week. "You don't get fewer followers when you insult somebody on Twitter, or say something outrageous on Twitter, you get more followers."

"If you're on a reality TV show, and you're the villain, the villain is often the star of the reality TV show and, in fact, we were wrong," he continued. "We thought Trump had left the world of entertainment, had left the world of reality television, and climbed over the wall into the world of politics. In fact, what he did, was he took the world of politics and he pulled it over the wall into the world of reality television."

Jones compared Trump's ability to adapt to new media in the same way Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama excelled in new mediums better than any of their competitors.

"Just like FDR changed the rules of the game because he mastered radio, he was able to take radio and just completely master that — then you had JFK and JFK was able to master television — new medium, new master, new president," Jones said.

Later in the video, Jones highlighted the way Trump has been able to woo parts of the Democratic Party over to his side, specifically African-American Democrats.

"70 percent of African Americans have a horrible view of Donald Trump," Jones said. "In order for the Democrats to win the White House they don’t have to get 50 percent of the black vote or 60, or 70, or 80, or 90. Democrats, in order to win historically, need 90 to 92 percent of the black vote."

According to Jones, if only 70 percent are against Trump, "that means 30 percent are open to his argument, if he gets half of those, he’s president."

New Public Policy Polling data suggests Jones could be correct in his assertion that Trump is winning portions of the black vote.

In Ohio, a swing state, Trump would win 15 percent of the African-American vote against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, with another 11 percent undecided. That would be a marked difference from the 4 percent of the black vote 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney earned.

(H/T: Red Alert Politics)

—

Follow the author of this story on Twitter:

Follow @tregp