Black Panther Party founding member David Hilliard explains why he's endorsing Trump

A former high-ranking member of the notorious Black Panther Party gave a surprising endorsement to recently convicted Donald Trump and insisted the presidential hopeful is 'not a racist.'

David Hilliard, a founding member of the civil rights organization, said in a TikTok posted on Monday that he met Trump during the 1960s in New York City and called the former president a 'decent man.' 

In the past, critics have accused Trump of being racist. But he has been surging in popularity among black voters, according to recent polling.

In the video posted by Carol Mitchell, an 82-year old Hilliard said Trump is an ally to African Americans.

'Trump is a person who's a decent man, and he supported the Black Panther Party,' Hilliard said. 'He was someone who gave us money.' 

David Hilliard, the former Chief of Staff of the Black Panther Party, said Trump is a 'decent man' and is 'not racist'

'He's a friend to African Americans,' he said. 'I mean he's not a racist. He's not a racist, fascist, white man. He supported Black people.'

'I think that Trump is qualified and a very decent approach to having somebody representing America,' Hilliard said.

Hilliard, who served as the chief of staff to the Black Panther Party, said he met Trump while he was a college student in New York and claimed the former president 'owned all of Harlem.' 

Trump and his father Fred had a discrimination lawsuit filed against their real estate company in 1973 that alleged African-Americans and Puerto Ricans were systematically excluded from apartments.

The ex-president denied any race-based discrimination took place. However, in his own book in 1987 he said certain types of tenants were avoided. 

'What we didn’t do was rent to welfare cases, white or black,' he wrote, according to Politico.

FBI documents show agents spoke to tenants, management and employees - as they were trying to determine whether it was made harder for minorities to rent from the Trump Management Company.

One of the interviews, which was conducted with an employee of Fred Trump, detailed how the president's father allegedly 'wanted to get rid of the blacks that were in the building'. 

Another interview was conducted with a former doorman at a Trump building in Brooklyn in 1974.

The man said a supervisor: 'told me that if a black person came to 2650 Ocean Parkway and inquired about an apartment for rent, and he, that is [redacted] was not there at the time, that I should tell him that the rent was twice as much as it really was, in order that he could not afford the apartment.'

The files also contained cease and desist orders that alleged discriminatory practices were taking place, and a ruling from the New York State Human Rights Commission.

Hilliard said he met Trump while he was a college student in New York in the 1960s and claimed the former president 'owned all of Harlem'

Trump Management Company, as well as Fred and Donald, entered into a consent decree settling the litigation in 1975.

It did not include any admissions of wrongdoing in regards to the allegations.

However, it did state a series of safeguards to make sure apartments were rented without regard to race, religion, gender, color, religion, sex or nationality were not implemented in future.

Trump was convicted last week on all 34 felony counts of falsifying hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. 

Hilliard, however, alleged that the guilty verdict was due to Trump's relationship with the black community.

'[He was convicted] because Trump likes Africans in America, he likes Black folks' Hilliard said.