Donald Trump just told two big lies about his relationship with black Americans

The US presidential election campaign is finally about to begin.

Republican nominee Donald Trump used a speech in Milwaukee on Tuesday to reach out to African American voters, claiming that the Democrats shouldn't take the black vote "for granted".

It may not surprise you to learn that there were some problems with this.

Firstly, Trump has not visited a single black neighbourhood, college or church during his campaign to date. He has also turned down several invites to speak from black community groups and rights organisations such as the NAACP - a fact not lost on voters.

Secondly, while Milwaukee has seen violence since yet another police shooting of a black man last week, Trump was actually 30 miles away from the scene of protests, making his appeal to black voters in an all-white suburb.

Trump's campaign press release wrote up an AP reporter's words as "Trump sounds like he's talking directly to African Americans..."

...conveniently cutting off the last part of what she said.

Gallup polls this week put Trump's unfavourable rating at 64 per cent among general election voters - and previous polling say Trump has exactly zero per cent of the African American vote in several swing states.

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