Donald Trump, a billionaire born into privilege and bailed out by his father at every turn, told The New York Times in an interview that he believed civil rights-era protections resulted in white people being “very badly treated.” Poor Donald. He’s had it so hard. Quit holding the white man down, y’all! Equality looks like oppression to the privileged.
The New York Times reports:
Speaking to The New York Times on Wednesday, Mr. Trump echoed grievances amplified by Vice President JD Vance and other top officials who in recent weeks have urged white men to file federal complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
When asked whether protections that began in the 1960s, spurred by the passage of the Civil Rights Act, had resulted in discrimination against white men, Mr. Trump said he believed “a lot of people were very badly treated.”
“White people were very badly treated, where they did extremely well and they were not invited to go into a university to college,” he said, an apparent reference to affirmative action in college admissions. “So I would say in that way, I think it was unfair in certain cases.”
He added: “I think it was also, at the same time, it accomplished some very wonderful things, but it also hurt a lot of people — people that deserve to go to a college or deserve to get a job were unable to get a job. So it was, it was a reverse discrimination.”
Mr. Trump’s comments were a blunt distillation of his administration’s racial politics, which rest on the belief that white people have become the real victims of discrimination in America. During his campaign for president, Mr. Trump harnessed a political backlash to the Black Lives Matter and other protests, saying there was “a definite anti-white feeling in this country,” and he joined his base in denouncing what he deemed to be “woke” policies.
In the 1970s, Donald Trump and his father were sued by the Department of Justice over their racially discriminatory housing practices in Brooklyn. Trump Village was solely renting to white applicants and turned away people of color who applied. Trump must feel that he was unfairly treated because people of color had the audacity to apply for housing. He hasn’t changed since then, and he won’t change now.
America, we can do better than this.
