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The Trump campaign believes Donald Trump is gaining ground among African-American voters.

Last week, a USC/LA Times poll suggested that Trump had amassed nearly 20 percent support of Black voters. The poll showed Hillary Clinton with 71 percent support from Black voters, while Donald Trump garnered a surprising 19.6 percent.

As a result of that survey, the Trump campaign actually began to believe that he was making real headway with Black voters thanks in part to the “what do you have to lose?” challenge issued by Trump on the campaign trail.

Unfortunately for “The Donald,” the surge in Black voter support was just a “blip.” The same USC/LA Times poll now calculates Trump’s Black voter support in the single digits. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll currently has Trump polling at 7 percent amongst African-American voters, while Hillary Clinton is currently at 81 percent.

Even with Clinton’s high polling numbers amongst Black voters, 81 percent may still pose problems for the Democratic presidential nominee in November.

Lauren Victoria BurkePolitical Analyst and writer for NBC Black, said Clinton will not reach 90 percent of the African-American vote and will not see the same turnout as former Senator Barack Obama on his road to the White House in 2007. 

“She has to make that up with another group,” Burke said. The NewsOne Now panelist said it is “likely” because Trump is not polling well with White women.

Roland Martin reminded viewers the Clinton campaign has an “intensity problem” amongst Black voters and suggested they mobilize African-American political surrogates to galvanize the Black vote.

“If they don’t get serious about driving Black votes hard in Florida, North Carolina, as well as Ohio, they may have serious problems,” said Martin.

Corey DadeSenior Director of U.S. Public Affairs and Crisis Practice at Burson-Marsteller, agreed with Martin’s assessment of the state of the 2016 presidential race, saying, “I think there are members of the campaign who do know that, who do know that they need to energize their base … they haven’t activated it yet.”

Dade later added, “We’ve seen a pattern of [them] being slow and reactive.”

Gianno Caldwell, Republican Strategist with Caldwell Strategic Consulting, said, “The New York Times article proved that young African-American voters are not excited about Hillary Clinton and they don’t trust her.”

Attorney Yolanda Young called the level of disinterest exhibited by young Black voters a shame, because “there’s enough happening on the local level that the Black community on its own should get out there and vote.”

Watch Roland Martin and the NewsOne Now panel dissect the latest presidential polling numbers in the video clip above.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty

Watch NewsOne Now with Roland Martin, in its new time slot on TV One.

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