Trump promised policies to make people of color miserable. Now his voters are feeling the pain, too.
The president's proposals are already starting to impact the very people who put him back in office. Trump’s agenda was never just about harming people of color — it was about elevating himself.
After weeks of implementing policies that target people of color, it’s clear Donald Trump is no longer using a dog whistle to reach white supremacists. He’s using a bullhorn.
He rained down executive orders meant to destroy diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, both within the government and in private industry.
He scuttled civil rights offices within numerous federal agencies.
He sought to remove the Temporary Protected Status of immigrants from countries like Haiti and Venezuela.
He bragged in a speech to Congress about cutting aid to several African nations and tried to withhold billions from foreign aid contractors before the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in.
However, policies targeting people of color are just the carrots Trump uses to rally the masses.
His end goals, in my view, are not solely about race. They’re about power.
That’s why he has sought to exert control over majority white countries like Canada and Ukraine.
It’s why he’s fired federal workers, including some who voted for him. It’s why his so-called big beautiful budget bill could lead to Medicaid cuts that hurt low-income Republican voters.
In short, Trump’s policies are already starting to impact the very people who put him back in office. And as the hits keep on coming, his voters are learning Trump’s agenda was never just about harming people of color. Instead, it was about elevating Trump and doing so at any cost.
This is the bait-and-switch America signed up for, and this is the trap we now find ourselves trying to escape.
If, as a country, we are to regain any sense of normalcy, we must look beyond the most outrageous moments we’ve seen these last few weeks.
Incidents like the Oval Office shouting match between Trump, JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are designed to entertain us.
We know this because Trump said as much after he and Vance berated Zelensky for his supposed lack of gratitude. “This is going to be great television,” Trump said. “I will say that.”
Meanwhile, Trump, with the assistance of Elon Musk, is firing tens of thousands of government workers in a process a federal judge declared illegal, and Trump is pushing tax policies that will overwhelmingly benefit rich people like himself. And Musk, while heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), continues to add to the billions in government contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits that have helped build his business empire.
Unfortunately, most Americans don’t have the bandwidth to focus on such conflicts of interest. That’s because the Trump administration continues to bombard us with distractions, such as the tariff war with our neighbors. Like most of us, Canada’s leader is befuddled by the nonsensical nature of it all.
“Today the United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters after the tariffs were announced. “At the same time, they are talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying, murderous dictator. Make that make sense.”
Two days after Trudeau uttered those words, and after a phone call with Mexico’s president, Trump delayed tariffs on a wide range of goods from both countries. But he continued to cozy up to Russia by cutting off military aid and intelligence to Ukraine and seeking to revoke the Temporary Protected Status of Ukrainian refugees.
This is the bait-and-switch America signed up for.
The administration says it is seeking to force Ukraine to negotiate for peace, but nothing about this feels peaceful. It feels hostile, much like the moment in 2017 when white supremacists who were marching in Charlottesville, Va., chanted, “Russia is our friend.”
Perhaps that chant explains why so many of Trump’s supporters are unbothered by his embrace of America’s long-standing enemy. They believe, as he apparently does, that Russia is their friend, and whiteness is their bond.
But as I watch the president destabilize America from within, I can only hope his supporters can look beyond race and see what’s apparent to the rest of us: Russia is not their friend, and neither is Donald Trump.