Could Minister Louis Farrakhan become President Trump’s BFF? That is not likely. However, politics does make strange bedfellows. Omarosa Manigault, Trump’s White House adviser, spoke on a talk show on Chicago’s famed Black radio station WVON on Thursday, May 4, 2017. One of the show’s co-hosts asked her if she would be agreeable to meeting with Farrakhan. She said:

I think any[one] in your audience would know that I have never shied away from having an open and, I believe, a good relationship with Louis Farrakhan and so I would look forward to receiving that invitation and sitting down with him.

To all too many African Americans, this is welcome news. They believe Farrakhan consistently speaks out in the best interests of African Americans. The Nation of Islam has successfully billed itself as a courageous group willing to go where few Blacks dare go.

Most of those that denounce the NOI are deemed Toms, pawns of “the Jews,” cowards, and so on. Sadly, these critics never seriously question the motives and hidden agendas of the ultra-reactionary, theocratic and authoritarian NOI. Equally important, they do not ask what Trump and Farrakhan might have in common.

Both leaders hate and fear the mainstream media. Both men consistently scare and infuriate Jews. (Farrakhan has praised Trump for supposedly refusing to take large sums of money from Jews.) Both men are hyper-masculine patriarchs that use traditional religion to bolster their views. Both men hate affirmative action. Both men buy into and promote paranoid conspiracy theories. Both men are applauded and embraced by White separatists.

Most African Americans have no idea what Farrakhan would say were he to have the opportunity to speak to Trump. However, Farrakhan said:

God gives a directive both to Moses and Aaron…go you both to Pharaoh, I have given you both an authority. You don’t need to send people to talk to Mr. Trump who don’t know what time it is, but if there should come a time that I should talk to the modern pharaoh, I know exactly what to ask for. I am not asking for Negro tidbits. I’m asking for what God wants: land of our own and a good send off after we have given you 400 years of our sweat, blood and tears.

Never tiring of the Moses fantasy and comparing himself to Moses, if he had the opportunity to meet with the President, Farrakhan would fritter the opportunity away by asking for a separate nation. It would not bother him in the least that most African Americans have no interest in living under a theocratic government run by the Ayatollah Farrakhan and his ilk.

This fantasy is not even well-thought out. Where would the land be? How much land would be necessary for tens of millions of African Americans? How much money would it take to run it? What would be the fate of non-Muslims in this land? What would be the status of girls, women and LGBT people? It is not as though the NOI has not had several decades to ponder and work out these details.

Of course, Farrakhan is not serious about any of this. He is primarily interested in worthless grandstanding and showboating. This is vintage Farrakhan. However, African Americans need and deserve much better than this kind of “strong” Black leadership.

I honestly cannot imagine what I would say to Trump if I had the opportunity. This is probably true of most African Americans, which is probably why few want to meet him. Those African Americans that have met him have been met with howls of derision and disgust by the Black masses.

When Blacks met with Obama, they felt comfortable sharing their hopes and dreams. They were hopeful about job creation, an improved economy, new infrastructure, improved health care, a decrease in police brutality, fairness in housing, and so on. Trump, however, represents Black hopelessness in all of these areas and more.

Reactionary White leaders have always been eager and willing to talk to Reactionary Black Nationalists and separatists like Farrakhan. They see in Farrakhan the possibility of having Black people separated from the United States. Why wouldn’t they talk to him?

On the other hand, many Black people have learned to condemn progressives for not meeting with reactionary Black leadership. Some believe progressives are afraid of being identified with such leaders. Indeed, they might be afraid. However, what they might actually be afraid of is being identified with unrealistic authoritarian gibberish and religious insanity. And what’s so bad about being afraid of that?