Racism
In the 1970s, Trump was sued twice by the U.S. Justice Department for discriminating against black people who wanted to rent housing from his father's company. He started his political career by arguing falsely and repeatedly that Barack Obama was not a United States citizen, and he later lied about having found evidence in support of his claims. During the presidential campaign, Trump was denounced by politicians on the right and left after saying a U.S. district judge of Mexican ancestry couldn't be unbiased in the Trump University fraud suit because of his heritage. House Speaker Paul Ryan said, "Claiming a person can’t do the job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment. I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It’s absolutely unacceptable."
Timeline
| 1927.06.01 | Trump's father arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally in New York. vice.com (See also Black Americans) |
| 1950.12 | Woody Guthrie writes a song called "Old Man Trump" denouncing the racism of his landlord, Trump's father Fred. nytimes.com (See also Black Americans) |
| 1973.10.16 | Trump is sued by the Department of Justice for refusing to rent homes to black people. documentcloud.org (See also Black Americans) |
| 1973.12.13 | Trump after hiring a former McCarthy Aid as his lawyer counter-sues the Justice Department for $100 million after they sued him for refusing to rent homes to black people. documentcloud.org The Lawsuit is later thrown out. |
| 1975.06.11 | Trump settles with federal government, promising to end racial bias. documentcloud.org |
| 1978.03.07 | Trump is sued again by the Department of Justice for once more refusing to rent homes to black people. nytimes.com (See also Black Americans) This was 3 years after he agreed to stop racist business practices and paid a large settlement. |
| 1989.09.05 | Trump says blacks have a tremendous advantage over whites when looking for jobs. newsone.com (See also Black Americans) |
| 1990.09 | Ivana Trump claims her husband keeps book of Hitler speeches by his bed. businessinsider.com (See also Anti-Semitism, Jewish Americans) |
| 1991.05.10 | The President of Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino publishes a book where he quotes Trump as saying he thinks laziness is a trait in the blacks and he only wants Jews counting his money. web.archive.org (See also Black Americans, Jewish Americans, Anti-Semitism) |
| 1992.12.06 | Trump is fined 200,000$ by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement for not allowing blacks or women onto his casino floor while personal friend and racist Mafia leader is gambling. yahoo.com (See also Criminality, Women, Sexism, Black Americans) |
| 1993.10.06 | Trump, trying to get in on casino market, says Mashantucket Pequots "don't look like Indians to me." articles.courant.com (See also Native Americans) |
| 1997 | Jill Harth files a sexual harassment lawsuit, which among other things claims Trump attempted to rape her and refused to hire black models. dailymail.co.uk (See also Misogyny, Sexism, Women, Black Americans, Lawsuits, Criminality) |
| 2005 | Sound Technician on "The Apprentice" says Trump repeatedly called him a "F*cking Monkey." buzzfeed.com (See also Black Americans) He also said Trump verbally harassed women on set. |
| 2011.04.14 | Trump, mulling presidential run against Obama, says he has a good relationship with "the blacks." politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com (See also Black Americans) |
| 2014.11.25 | Trump says that because of Obama there won't be another black president for generations. newsone.com (See also Black Americans) |
| 2015.08.21 | Trump is asked to comment about two of his supporters who brutally beat and urinated on a homeless man while saying, “Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported,” Trump responds to the question with, "The people who are following me are very passionate. They love this country and they want this country to be great again. " washingtonpost.com (See also Mexican Americans, Americans in Poverty, 2016 Campaign, Hate Crimes, Trump Effect) |
| 2015.08.27 | Trump responds to praise from White Supremacists with: "Everyone likes me." talkingpointsmemo.com (See also 2016 Campaign, Black Americans) |
| 2016.01.22 | Trump retweets a white supremacist. timesofisrael.com (See also Jewish Americans, Anti-Semitism) |
| 2016.01.22 | Trump retweets white supremacist: ."@WhiteGenocideTM: @realDonaldTrump Poor Jeb. I could've sworn I saw him outside Trump Tower the other day!" reuters.com |
| 2016.01.24 | Trump spokesperson defends comments she made criticizing Obama for being "a negro” and not a "pure-breed.” rawstory.com |
| 2016.01.26 | Data analysis shows 62% of the people Trump retweeted during the week of January 19th follow at least one white supremacist account. getlittlebird.com (See also Jewish Americans) |
| 2016.02.28 | Trump refuses to denounce the support of former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, claiming he has never heard of Duke despite having previously mentioned him by name. npr.org |
| 2016.02.29 | Nikki Haley calls on Trump to disavow the support of white supremacists and Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke. nytimes.com (See also Nikki Haley) |
| 2016.02.29 | Trump has 30 black college students ejected from his rally for no apparent reason. huffingtonpost.com |
| 2016.04.15 | Six former contestants from "The Apprentice" blast Trump as racist and sexist. nbcnews.com (See also Misogyny) |
| 2016.05.10 | Trump selects a White Nationalist Leader to be a Delegate in California. motherjones.com (See also 2016 Campaign, Black Americans) |
| 2016.06.03 | Trump rails against judge's "Mexican heritage," claiming unfair treatment because of it. cnn.com |
| 2016.06.07 | House Speaker Paul Ryan disavows Trump's comments about federal judge: "Claiming a person can't do the job because of their race is ... the textbook definition of a racist comment." politifact.com |
| 2016.06.21 | Trump has only Black GOP official kicked out of event with no explanation. rawstory.com (See also Black Americans, 2016 Campaign) |
| 2016.07.01 | Trump says he'll consider replacing hijab-wearing TSA agents with veterans. abcnews.go.com (See also Muslims) |
| 2016.07.22 | Trump gives White Supremacists VIP seating at the GOP Convention. littlegreenfootballs.com (See also Black Americans, 2016 Campaign) |
| 2016.11 | Southern Law Poverty Center tracks 900 hate crimes in 10 days following Trump election, linking the two. splcenter.org |
| 2016.11.18 | Trump's team said today that he had never advocated for "any registry or system that tracks individuals based on their religion" -- despite statements in the past that may be at odds with that. abcnews.go.com (See also Muslim Registry, Muslims, Immigration) |
| 2016.11.19 | White supremacist Richard Spencer, an advocate of "peaceful ethnic cleansing," salutes Trump victory with a Nazi gesture. theatlantic.com (See also Anti-Semitism) The Southern Poverty Law Center refers to Spencer as a white supremacist and "professional racist in khakis." |
| 2016.12.15 | Trump calls on supporters to cheer for Black Americans who "didn't come out to vote". chicagotribune.com (See also Black Americans) |
| 2016.12.21 | Comedian Tom Arnold claims to have tape of Trump saying the N-Word. mynorthwest.com (See also Black Americans) |
| 2016.12.22 | Obama just made it harder for Trump to create a Muslim Registry by ordering DHS to dismantle a dormant program that was used to track people from Muslim-majority countries. theatlantic.com (See also Muslim Registry, Muslims) |
| 2017.01.05 | After the Berlin terrorist attack in December, President-elect Donald Trump repeated his intention to build a Muslim registry, here the San Francisco Chronicle appeals to Tech CEOs to say they will not build a Muslim registry sfchronicle.com (See also Muslim Registry, Muslims) |
| 2017.01.15 | Priebus to Obama: "Step up" and quiet Democrats who question Trump’s legitimacy. washingtonpost.com (See also Reince Priebus, Mike Pence) |
| 2017.01.15 | Trump claims to cancel MLK day visit to African American history museum, but was never planning on being in Washington DC in the first place. nydailynews.com (See also False Statements) |
| 2017.01.18 | The Human Rights Campaign releases survey results revealing the deeply damaging fallout the November election has had on U.S. youth, 70 percent of whom have witnessed bullying, hate messages or harassment, especially that which is racially driven or targets LGBTQ populations—and transgender young people are most frequently targeted. hrc.org (See also Hate Crimes, LGBTQIA) |
| 2017.01.20 | Trump White House takes down Native Americans web page from White House website. nativenewsonline.net (See also Native Americans, Department of the Interior, Reversals, First 100 Days) Within hours of the presidential transition, the White House, took down the Native Americans web page that had been part of the Obama White House website for the previous eight years. |
| 2017.01.23 | Trump administration posts a statement on White House website that says "The dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America is wrong," and calls Black Lives Matter movement "a threat." edition.cnn.com (See also First 100 Days, Black Americans) |
| 2017.01.25 | Trump tells a story about Bernhard Langer, riddled with falsehoods and racism, to House and Senate leaders to justify voter fraud investigation. nytimes.com (See also False Statements) |
| 2017.01.27 | Trump says Christians will be given priority as refugees over Muslims. www1.cbn.com (See also Immigration, Muslim Immigration Ban) In an exclusive interview with The Brody File, President Donald Trump says persecuted Christians will be given priority when it comes to applying for refugee status in the United States. “We are going to help them,” President Trump tells CBN News. “They’ve been horribly treated. Do you know if you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very tough to get into the United States? If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the ... |
| 2017.02.02 | Trump plans to remove Neo-Nazi and White Supremacist groups from terror watch list and focus solely on Islamic groups. reuters.com (See also First 100 Days, Executive Orders, Anti-Semitism) |
| 2017.02.02 | Trump's counterterrorism efforts will focus on Islam and not white supremacists, who also have bombed and attacked U.S. citizens. reuters.com (See also Black Americans, Nationalism) |
| 2017.02.06 | Trump will not be welcome to address Parliament on his state visit to the UK because of its opposition to racism and to sexism, says Speaker John Bercow. independent.co.uk (See also First 100 Days, United Kingdom, Sexism, Misogyny) |
| 2017.02.07 | Trump tells Fox News’ Bill O'Reilly that the media and other critics are wrong when they attempt to characterize his policies as anti-Muslim or anti-black. washingtonpost.com (See also First 100 Days, False Statements, Attempts to Discredit Media) |
| 2017.02.13 | Trump administration's connection to white nationalists continues as Kellyanne Conway tweets "Love you back" to white nationalist. motherjones.com (See also Kellyanne Conway) |
| 2017.02.15 | FBI releases records on an investigation conducted in the 1970s into alleged racial discrimination in the rental of apartments from Trump's real estate company. politico.com (See also Lawsuits) |
| 2017.02.16 | Trump asks black journalist April Ryan if the Congressional Black Caucus are "friends of yours" and tells her to arrange him a meeting with them after she asks about his inner city policies. theguardian.com (See also First 100 Days) |
| 2017.02.22 | Two Indian immigrants and a bystander shot by racist in a bar; one immigrant dies, and the shooter—who'd said the victims didn't belong in the United States—now faces first-degree premeditated murder and attempted murder charges. nytimes.com (See also Immigrants, Hate Crimes) |
| 2017.02.24 | Wealthy conservative family that helped finance Trump's election is part owner of misogynist, anti-Semitic, far-right-wing Breitbart News empire. washingtonpost.com (See also Assaults on Facts, Misogyny) |
| 2017.02.28 | Betsy DeVos backtracks after fierce backlash to her statement that historically black colleges and universities were “real pioneers” of school choice. nytimes.com (See also First 100 Days, Betsy DeVos, Department of Education) |
| 2017.02.28 | Trump begins his address to a joint session of Congress by condemning the recent wave of bomb threats at Jewish community centers and the vandalism of Jewish cemeteries. npr.org (See also Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Hate Crimes) |
| 2017.03.01 | NAACP releases a statement in response to Betsy DeVos' misappropriation of Historically Black Colleges and Universities as school choice. naacp.org (See also Betsy DeVos, Department of Education) |
| 2017.03.04 | Actor and U.N Goodwill Ambassador Don Cheadle says Donald Trump once asked family friend: "Would you ever f*ck a n*gger?" avclub.com (See also Black Americans) |
| 2017.03.20 | Trump brags he's made NFL coaches afraid to hire Black Lives Matter protestor Colin Kaepernick, a veteran quarterback. chicagotribune.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior, Black Americans) |
| 2017.03.24 | White supremacist James Jackson is charged with murdering Timothy Caughman, a black man. According to NY prosecutor Joan Illuzzi, Jackson's stated goal was to "kill as many black men as he could." aljazeera.com (See also Hate Crimes) |
| 2017.03.27 | During a press briefing, Sean Spicer refuses to comment on a direct question about the stabbing death of Timothy Caughman, a black man, allegedly by a white supremacist, instead pivoting to anti-Semitic bomb threats purportedly made by a Jewish teen. whitehouse.gov (See also Hate Crimes) |
| 2017.08.02 | Two close associates of Pope Francis have accused American Catholic ultraconservatives of making an alliance of “hate” with evangelical Christians to back President Trump, focusing on Steve Bannon as a “supporter of an apocalyptic geopolitics” that has stymied action against climate change and exploited fears of migrants and Muslims with calls for “walls and purifying deportations.” nytimes.com (See also Steve Bannon, Muslims, Nationalism) |
| 2017.08.08 | Three days after a bomb exploded at a mosque in suburban Minneapolis, a White House official said he isn't yet convinced the attack was not a "fake hate crime." buzzfeed.com (See also Muslims) Trump still hasn't said anything about the bombing, which tore through part of the mosque on Saturday while people were arriving for prayers. |
| 2017.08.10 | Sam Clovis, Donald Trump's pick to be chief scientist for the Department of Agriculture, pushed unfounded theories about then-President Barack Obama's upbringing and called then-Attorney General Eric Holder a "racist black." cnn.com (See also Department of Agriculture, False Statements) Sam Clovis, Donald Trump's pick to be chief scientist for the Department of Agriculture, pushed unfounded theories about then-President Barack Obama's upbringing and called then-Attorney General Eric Holder a "racist black," a CNN KFile review of Clovis's writings and radio broadcasts during 2012 and 2013 has found. |
| 2017.08.15 | In a long, combative exchange with reporters at Trump Tower in Manhattan, the president repeatedly rejected a torrent of bipartisan criticism for waiting two days before naming the right-wing groups and placing blame on “many sides” for the violence in Charlottesville that ended with the death of a young woman after a car crashed into a crowd. nytimes.com (See also Nationalism, Anti-Semitism, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.08.15 | Weeks before a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, led to three deaths and 19 injuries, the Trump administration revoked a grant to Life After Hate, a group that works to de-radicalize neo-Nazis. huffingtonpost.com (See also Department of Homeland Security, Anti-Semitism, Muslims) |
| 2017.08.16 | Two of Donald Trump’s councils of top business leaders are disbanding following Tuesday’s controversial remarks by the president about the weekend’s violence in Virginia. wsj.com (See also Anti-Semitism, Nationalism) Mr. Trump tweeted Wednesday that he was ending the councils, only *after* one of the councils had planned to disband after a conference call of its executives. |
| 2017.08.16 | White nationalist leader David Duke on Tuesday thanked Trump for blaming violence in Charlottesville, Va., on the "alt-left." thehill.com (See also Anti-Semitism, Nationalism) |
| 2017.08.18 | House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi endorsed a call to censure Donald Trump for his response to the violent white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia. politico.com (See also Unprecedented Actions, Unpresidential Behavior, Anti-Semitism, Nationalism) |
| 2017.08.18 | The remaining members of a presidential arts and humanities panel resigned in yet another sign of growing national protest of Trump’s recent comments on the violence in Charlottesville. washingtonpost.com (See also Unprecedented Actions, Unpresidential Behavior, Nationalism, Anti-Semitism) |
| 2017.08.20 | An expanding number of organizations that had planned to hold galas at the president’s Florida resort - Mar-a-Lago - are deciding to raise money elsewhere. nytimes.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, Unpresidential Behavior, Nationalism, Anti-Semitism) |
| 2017.08.23 | A UN committee charged with tackling racism has issued an “early warning” over conditions in the US and urged the Trump administration to “unequivocally and unconditionally” reject discrimination. theguardian.com (See also Unprecedented Actions, Nationalism) In the past decade, the only other countries that have been issued similar warnings were Burundi, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan, and Nigeria. |
| 2017.08.23 | Seven members of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, which includes Obama appointees, resigned this week, citing Trump’s Charlottesville response and other actions which they say threaten Homeland Security. huffingtonpost.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior, Nationalism, Anti-Semitism) |
| 2017.08.25 | More than one-quarter of a panel tasked with advising the Homeland Security Department on cybersecurity and infrastructure protection resigned en masse, citing Trump’s “insufficient attention” to the nation’s cyber vulnerabilities, his response to racist violence in Charlottesville, withdrawing from the Paris Accord, among other complaints. defenseone.com (See also Nationalism, Environment, John Kelly, Department of Homeland Security) |
| 2017.08.26 | Controversial former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio was pardoned by Donald Trump on Friday after being found guilty in July on criminal contempt charges stemming from his refusal to stop imprisoning suspected illegal immigrants. abcnews.go.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior, Immigration, Immigrants) |
| 2017.08.28 | Donald Trump said he announced his pardon of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio as Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas because he “assumed the ratings would be far higher.” thehill.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior, Immigration, Legal Issues) |
| 2017.09.05 | The Trump administration announced Tuesday it would begin to unwind an Obama-era program known as DACA that allows younger undocumented immigrants to live in the country without fear of deportation, calling the program unconstitutional. washingtonpost.com (See also Immigration, Jeff Sessions, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice) |
| 2017.09.12 | The Supreme Court reinstated disputed congressional and state voting maps in Texas, blocking two lower court rulings that said the Republican-backed district lines were the product of racial discrimination. bloomberg.com (See also Supreme Court) The high court action is a victory for Texas Republicans, who defended the districts and sought Supreme Court intervention. It’s a blow to minority-rights groups that sued to challenge the maps. |
| 2017.09.14 | Donald Trump again drew a parallel between white supremacists and counter protesters, drawing a mild rebuke from South Carolina’s Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate who met with Trump to discuss racial issues a day earlier. bloomberg.com (See also Anti-Semitism, Nationalism) |
| 2017.09.23 | Donald Trump appeared at a campaign rally in Huntsville, Ala., veering off topic, and eventually landing on a few controversial points regarding the NFL and players peacefully protesting violence against African-Americans. washingtonpost.com (See also Black Americans, Nationalism, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.09.23 | Donald Trump says Stephen Curry’s White House invitation has been ‘withdrawn,' ignoring that there had been no invitation yet, but the NBA champions were not welcome at the White House. washingtonpost.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.09.24 | The Trump administration announced new restrictions on visitors from eight countries — an expansion of an existing travel ban that has spurred fierce legal debates over security, immigration and discrimination, adding Chad, North Korea and Venezuela to the new indefinite ban. washingtonpost.com (See also Muslim Immigration Ban, Nationalism, North Korea, Foreign Policy, Iran) |
| 2017.09.25 | Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit America’s racial and religious divisions during the 2016 presidential campaign. washingtonpost.com (See also 2016 Campaign, Russian Meddling in Election) |
| 2017.10.19 | Donald Trump made several false statements to try and rebut a Florida congresswoman’s account of a call between him and the widow of a soldier killed in Niger, accusing her of listening in on the conversation and telling a “total lie” to the media. politico.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior, False Statements) |
| 2017.10.20 | Donald Trump has erroneously stoked racial fears by falsely linking a rise in recorded crime in England and Wales to the “spread of radical Islamic terror” in his latest outburst on Twitter. theguardian.com (See also Muslims, False Statements, Assaults on Facts) The data in the report barely mentions terrorism, as it is dwarfed by the 5.2 million offences tracked that year. |
| 2017.10.31 | White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly on Monday called Robert E. Lee “an honorable man” and said that “the lack of an ability to compromise” led to the Civil War, setting off a firestorm while implying that "men and women of good faith on both sides made their stand." washingtonpost.com (See also John Kelly, Unprecedented Actions) |
| 2017.11.19 | An FBI report on the rise of black “extremists” is stirring fears of a return to practices used during the civil rights movement, when the bureau spied on activist groups without evidence they had broken any laws. apnews.com (See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.11.19 | Donald Trump tweeted that he should have left three American citizens in jail after they were arrested for shoplifting in China. nytimes.com (See also China, Feuds, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.11.21 | Donald Trump took to Twitter to criticize Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch. cnn.com (See also Feuds, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.11.24 | Jeff Sessions is methodically reshaping the Justice Department to reflect his nationalist ideology and hard-line views, from calling for prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges possible to altering the department's legal stances in cases involving voting rights and LGBTQ issues some would call discrimination. washingtonpost.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Department of Justice, LGBTQIA, Nationalism, Immigration, Muslim Immigration Ban, Assaults on Civil Liberties) |
| 2017.11.27 | At an event honoring Navajo Code Talkers — Native Americans who served in World War II — President Trump used a racial slur when he said, "You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas," referring to Senator Elizabeth Warren. axios.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.11.29 | A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Theresa May condemned Donald Trump's decision to retweet anti-Muslim hate videos from British far-right leader Jayda Fransen, stating that UK citizens "overwhelmingly reject" the prejudiced rhetoric of the far-right. axios.com (See also Belief in Conspiracy Theories, Immigration, Muslims) |
| 2017.11.29 | Donald Trump has retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by the deputy leader of the far-right British political party Britain First. buzzfeed.com (See also Muslim Immigration Ban, Immigration, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.11.30 | Donald Trump attacked British Prime Minister Theresa May over her criticism of his racist, Islamophobic far-right retweets. theguardian.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior, Unprecedented Actions, Belief in Conspiracy Theories, Nationalism) |
| 2017.12.04 | A divided U.S. Supreme Court let Donald Trump’s travel ban take full effect while legal challenges go forward, allowing the US to bar or restrict entry by people from six mostly Muslim countries, even if they have a relationship with a U.S.-based person or institution. bloomberg.com (See also Muslim Immigration Ban, Muslims, Nationalism, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Supreme Court) |
| 2017.12.06 | House Democrats overwhelmingly joined Republicans on Wednesday to defeat an attempt to impeach Donald Trump, but 58 Democrats supported the bid to consider impeachment over the objections of House Democratic leaders, who viewed the measure as a distraction in a Republican-controlled Congress. politico.com (See also Anti-Semitism, Unprecedented Actions) |
| 2017.12.08 | Donald Trump will not speak publicly at opening of a new Civil Rights Museum after the president’s plan to attend the opening erupted into controversy. nbcnews.com (See also Black Americans, Assaults on Civil Liberties) |
| 2017.12.14 | A White House senior adviser at the Department of Homeland Security previously promoted conspiracy theories about former President Barack Obama's birthplace, lamented the "Zimbabwe-fication of America," and mocked the LGBT community. cnn.com (See also LGBTQIA, Black Americans, Department of Homeland Security, Belief in Conspiracy Theories) |
| 2017.12.23 | According to six officials, Donald Trump said to his advisers in the Oval Office that 15,000 visitors from Haiti "all have AIDS" and that once the 40,000 visitors from Nigera see the United States, they would never "go back to their huts" in Africa. nytimes.com (See also Belief in Conspiracy Theories, Immigration, Rex Tillerson, John Kelly, Stephen Miller, Nationalism) |
| 2018.01.11 | Donald Trump has a habit of making offensive comments about nonwhite immigrants. washingtonpost.com (See also Immigration, Belief in Conspiracy Theories, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2018.01.11 | President Trump insulted several countries while being briefed on a bipartisan immigration deal, saying, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” referring to African countries and Haiti, then suggesting that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway. washingtonpost.com (See also Immigration, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2018.01.12 | After a career intelligence analyst who is an expert in hostage policy revealed that her parents are Korean, Donald Trump turned to an adviser in the room and seemed to suggest her ethnicity should determine her career path, asking why the "pretty Korean lady" isn't negotiating with North Korea on his administration's behalf. nbcnews.com (See also Women, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2018.01.16 | White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said claims that Donald Trump is racist are “outrageous,” because he hosted NBC’s reality show “The Apprentice.” bloomberg.com (See also Immigration) |
| 2018.01.18 | Haitian farmers and other laborers seeking to come to the United States through temporary work visas will no longer be eligible. mcclatchydc.com (See also Department of Homeland Security, Jobs) |
| 2018.01.19 | Trump administration appointee Carl Higbie resigned Thursday as chief of external affairs for the federal government's volunteer service organization after a review of racist, sexist, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBT comments he made on the radio. cnn.com (See also Resignations and Dismissals, Homophobia, Women, Black Americans) |
| 2018.01.22 | Donald Trump’s voting commission asked every state and the District for detailed voter registration data, but in Texas’s case it took an additional step: It asked to see Texas records that identify all voters with Hispanic surnames, newly released documents show. washingtonpost.com (See also Voter Suppression) |
| 2018.01.24 | A request by the Justice Department to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census could shift the nation’s balance of political power from cities to more rural communities over the next decade and give Republicans a new advantage drawing electoral boundaries. washingtonpost.com (See also Department of Justice, Voter Suppression, Mick Mulvaney) |
| 2018.02.13 | President Trump's search for deeply conservative federal judges appears to have eliminated most African Americans and Hispanics, as only one is African American, one is Hispanic, five are Asian Americans, and yet 80 are white. usatoday.com (See also Black Americans, Asian Americans) |
| 2018.02.20 | A top official at the Department of Health and Human Services has been placed on administrative leave after a CNN KFile inquiry while the agency investigates social media postings in which he pushed unfounded smears on social media. cnn.com (See also Resignations and Dismissals, Department of Health and Human Services, Belief in Conspiracy Theories) |
| 2018.03.02 | William G. Otis, one of Donald Trump's picks for a seat on the body that sets policy used to punish 70,000 federal criminals every year has publicly called to abolish that agency, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and has a history of making racially charged remarks about crime. npr.org (See also Assaults on Government, Conflicts of Interest) |
| 2018.03.06 | Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is changing the mission statement of his agency, removing promises of inclusive and discrimination-free communities. huffingtonpost.com (See also Ben Carson, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Assaults on Civil Liberties) |
| 2018.03.15 | Ken Isaacs, the Trump administration's pick to head the United Nations organization that coordinates assistance to migrants worldwide regularly pushed anti-Muslim sentiment, including claims that Muslims were trying to impose Sharia law in the US. cnn.com (See also Muslims) |
| 2018.03.28 | The Trump administration is attempting to scale back federal efforts to enforce fair housing laws, freezing enforcement actions against local governments and businesses, including Facebook, while sidelining officials who have aggressively pursued civil rights cases. nytimes.com (See also Ben Carson, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Assaults on Civil Liberties) The department is aiming to roll back Obama administration attempts to curtail decades of racial, ethnic and income segregation in federally subsidized housing and development projects. |
| 2018.04.13 | A political appointee at the Department of Health and Human Services, Ximena Barreto, shared an image in 2017 that said "our forefathers would have hung" Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for treason, while also calling Islam "a cult" and pushed the false Pizzagate conspiracy. cnn.com (See also Belief in Conspiracy Theories, Department of Health and Human Services) |
| 2018.04.23 | John Bolton, Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, chaired a nonprofit that has promoted misleading and false anti-Muslim news, some of which was amplified by a Russian troll factory. nbcnews.com (See also Muslims, False Statements) |
| 2018.05.07 | Fair-housing advocates plan to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and HUD Secretary Ben Carson for suspending an Obama-era rule requiring more than 1,200 communities receiving billions of federal housing dollars to draft plans to desegregate their communities — or risk losing federal funds. washingtonpost.com (See also Department of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, Reversals) |
| 2018.05.09 | A company at the center of widening questions involving President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen is listed as the organization behind a string of websites targeted toward white nationalists and other members of the alt-right. washingtonpost.com (See also Nationalism, Russian Meddling in Election, Anti-Semitism, Legal Issues) |
| 2018.05.21 | Donald Trump signed legislation that will undo a 2013 effort by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to discourage discrimination in auto lending. politico.com (See also Reversals, Mick Mulvaney) |
| 2018.05.30 | The White House has named a new National Security Council chief of staff from a group that propagates the conspiracy theory that Islamists have infiltrated the U.S. government in a plot to take over the country. washingtonpost.com (See also Belief in Conspiracy Theories) |
| 2018.06.04 | Donald Trump uninvited the Philadelphia Eagles from an event at the White House, blasting the Super Bowl champions for not agreeing with his policy of standing for the national anthem. politico.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior, Nationalism) |
| 2018.06.18 | Across immigration, policing, criminal justice, and voting rights, the attorney general is pushing an agenda that could erase many of the legal gains of modern America's defining movement. theatlantic.com (See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Jeff Sessions, Department of Justice, Reversals) |
| 2018.06.19 | Members of Jeff Sessions' own church filed a formal complaint against the attorney general, accusing him of "child abuse," "immorality," and "racial discrimination" and the “dissemination of doctrines contrary to the established standards of doctrines” of the United Methodist Church. abcnews.go.com (See also Immigration, Department of Justice, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2018.07.03 | The Trump administration will encourage the nation’s school superintendents and college presidents to adopt race-blind admissions standards, abandoning an Obama administration policy that called on universities to consider race as a factor in diversifying their campuses. nytimes.com (See also Reversals, Jeff Sessions, Assaults on Civil Liberties, Department of Education) |
| 2018.07.13 | In an interview with the British newspaper the Sun, Donald Trump made a statement that immigration changes existing “culture” for the worse, which is a staple of white nationalist rhetoric in the United States. washingtonpost.com (See also Nationalism, Anti-Semitism, Immigration) |
| 2018.07.25 | The Trump administration was warned that ending US protections for more than 300,000 Central Americans would strengthen and grow MS-13 and gangs that Donald Trump has called "animals," but the administration went on to end the protections for citizens of El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua regardless. cnn.com (See also Reversals, Administration Errors, Department of State) |
| 2018.08.01 | The White House is considering a second sharp reduction in the number of refugees who can be resettled in the United States, picking up where Donald Trump left off in 2017 in scaling back a program intended to offer protection to the world’s most vulnerable people by more than 40%. nytimes.com (See also Immigration, Muslims, Mike Pompeo, Stephen Miller) |
| 2018.08.07 | The Trump administration is expected to issue a proposal in coming weeks that would make it harder for *legal* immigrants to become citizens or get green cards if they have ever used a range of popular public welfare programs, including Obamacare. nbcnews.com (See also Stephen Miller, Immigration) |
| 2018.08.07 | Twenty-one Senate Democrats criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday for his decision to rescind guidance memos on affirmative action — which instructed schools on how they can legally consider the race of applicants to promote diversity — and pressed him to hand over records on racial discrimination complaints. buzzfeednews.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Betsy DeVos, Department of Education) |
| 2018.08.13 | Federal arrests of undocumented immigrants with no criminal record have more than tripled under Donald Trump and may still be accelerating, according to analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data from his first 14 months in office. nbcnews.com (See also Immigration, Legal Activity) The surge has been caused by a new ICE tactic of arresting — without warrants — people who are driving or walking down the street and using large-scale "sweeps" of likely immigrants, according to a class-action lawsuit filed by immigration rights advocates. |
| 2018.08.15 | The Trump administration has requested the restarting of thousands of deportation cases that immigration judges previously had suspended, according to statistics provided by the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the immigration courts. buzzfeednews.com (See also Immigration, Department of Justice) |
| 2018.08.19 | A White House speechwriter for Donald Trump was terminated last week after revelations that he had spoken at a conference attended by well-known white nationalists. washingtonpost.com (See also Resignations and Dismissals) |
| 2018.08.23 | South Africa accused Donald Trump of stoking racial divisions in a late-night tweet in which he said he had asked U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to study South African "land and farm seizures" and the "killing of farmers". yahoo.com (See also Belief in Conspiracy Theories, Mike Pompeo, Department of State) |
| 2018.08.28 | New emails link a former Homeland Security official to White Nationalists. theatlantic.com (See also Department of Homeland Security, Resignations and Dismissals) |
| 2018.08.29 | A growing number of people whose official birth records show they were born in the United States are now being denied passports — their citizenship suddenly thrown into question, as the Trump administration is accusing hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Hispanics along the border of using fraudulent birth certificates since they were babies, and it is undertaking a widespread crackdown. washingtonpost.com (See also Immigration, Fascism) |
| 2018.08.30 | Ian M. Smith, a Department of Homeland Security analyst resigned this week after he was confronted about his ties to white nationalist groups, and attended multiple immigration policy meetings at the White House. washingtonpost.com (See also Anti-Semitism, Department of Homeland Security, Resignations and Dismissals) |
| 2018.09.22 | Trump administration officials announced that immigrants who legally use public benefits like food assistance and Section 8 housing vouchers could be denied green cards under new rules aimed at keeping out people the administration deems a drain on the country. nytimes.com (See also Immigration, Immigrants, Americans in Poverty, Department of Homeland Security) A rule proposed by the Trump administration could force immigrants seeking permanent resident status to prove they will never become reliant on government assistance. |
| 2018.10.04 | A federal judge in San Francisco blocked the Trump administration from ending special protections for immigrants from four countries devastated by war and natural disaster, temporarily relieving more than 300,000 people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan from the threat of deportation. nytimes.com (See also Reversals, Legal Activity, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security) |
| 2018.10.09 | Andrew Wheeler, the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, repeatedly engaged with inflammatory content on his personal Facebook and Twitter accounts over the past five years, including some in the past month, including a racist image of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama on Facebook and retweeting an infamous “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist. huffingtonpost.com (See also Belief in Conspiracy Theories, Environmental Protection Agency) |
| 2018.10.11 | The office of Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state and the Republican nominee for governor in November’s election, has stalled more than 53,000 voter applications, including a disproportionately high number of black voters, which is stirring concern among nonpartisan voting rights advocates and supporters of Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate, who is vying to be the first black woman in the country to be elected governor. nytimes.com (See also Voter Suppression) |
| 2018.10.16 | Donald Trump called Sen. Elizabeth Warren a “complete and total Fraud,” opening a second day of sparring between the current White House occupant and a likely 2020 challenger over her Native American heritage. washingtonpost.com (See also Women, Misogyny, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2018.10.19 | Donald Trump told a woman reporter "don't be a baby" after she asked him for evidence to back up his claim that people in a US-bound caravan of immigrants were "hardened criminals." buzzfeednews.com (See also Misogyny, Women, Belief in Conspiracy Theories, Unpresidential Behavior, False Statements) |
| 2018.10.22 | Donald Trump claimed, without providing evidence, that "unknown Middle Easterners" were "mixed in" the caravan of Central American migrants heading to the US border. buzzfeednews.com (See also Belief in Conspiracy Theories, Immigration, Nationalism) |
| 2018.10.29 | Homeland Security and Pentagon officials said Monday that they will send 5,200 troops, military helicopters and giant spools of razor wire to the Mexican border in the coming days to brace for the arrival of Central American migrants President Trump is calling “an invasion.” washingtonpost.com (See also Department of Homeland Security, Immigration, Mexico) The US soon will have more troops along the Mexican border than it has fighting in Iraq and Syria. |
| 2018.10.30 | Donald Trump falsely claimed that America is the "only country in the world with birthright" when at least 30 countries worldwide offer it, including Canada and Mexico. axios.com (See also False Statements, Assaults on Facts, Legal Issues) |
| 2018.10.30 | Donald Trump is vowing to sign an executive order that would seek to end the right to U.S. citizenship for children born in the United States to non-citizens, a move most legal experts say runs afoul of the Constitution. washingtonpost.com (See also Immigration, Legal Issues) |
| 2018.10.31 | Donald Trump now says that he would deploy as many as 15,000 military personnel to the border with Mexico in response to caravans of Central American migrants making their way northward, doubling the figure Pentagon officials have announced would be operating there. washingtonpost.com (See also Immigration, Mexico, False Statements) If the deployment reaches 15,000 troops, it would be roughly equivalent to the size of the U.S. military’s presence in Afghanistan and three times the size of the presence in Iraq. Already, the deployment is believed to be the largest of its kind in more than a century. |
| 2018.11.09 | Donald Trump insulted three African-American reporters affiliated, and said the White House may continue to take press passes away from members of the media. cnn.com (See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Unprecedented Actions) |
| 2018.11.12 | Unaccompanied children who cross the US–Mexico border illegally will no longer have the right to apply for asylum under new changes instituted by the Trump administration, a shift in previous practice and a major restriction to how minors apply for protections in the country. buzzfeednews.com (See also Immigration, Mexico, Department of Homeland Security) |
| 2018.11.13 | In Donald Trump’s first year in office, the number of reported hate crimes jumped 17% — the highest climb in more than a decade — according to 2017 numbers released by the FBI. buzzfeednews.com (See also Trump Effect, Anti-Semitism, Homophobia) |
| 2018.11.15 | Donald Trump intends to nominate luxury handbag designer, and Mar-a-Lago member, Lana Marks as the new ambassador to South Africa, almost two years after the last ambassador left under Barack Obama. reuters.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, Corruption, Department of State) The nomination comes at a time of frayed relations between the two countries after a tweet in August in which Trump asked his secretary of state to study South African “land and farm seizures." |
| 2018.11.26 | U.S. authorities closed off the busiest port of entry along the U.S. border with Mexico and fired tear gas at members of a Central American migrant caravan, including mothers and children choking on tear gas, representing a serious escalation of the crisis. washingtonpost.com (See also Mexico Wall, Immigration) Authorities say that about 100,000 people legally pass through the San Ysidro border crossing every day. |
| The Trump administration has given nearly 60,000 Haitians with provisional legal residency in the United States 18 months to leave, announcing that it will not renew the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that has allowed them to remain in this country. washingtonpost.com (See also Immigrants, Department of Homeland Security) |
Assessments
Scott Alexander–Slate Star Codex
Alexander considers the question, "Is Trump Racist?", in his November 2016 column, You Are Still Crying Wolf.
I stick to my thesis from October 2015. There is no evidence that Donald Trump is more racist than any past Republican candidate (or any other 70 year old white guy, for that matter). All this stuff about how he’s “the candidate of the KKK” and “the vanguard of a new white supremacist movement” is made up. It’s a catastrophic distraction from the dozens of other undeniable problems with Trump that could have convinced voters to abandon him. ...
How could Trump insult a Mexican judge just for being Mexican? I don’t know. How could Trump insult a disabled reporter just for being disabled? How could Trump insult John McCain just for being a beloved war hero? Every single person who’s opposed him, Trump has insulted in various offensive ways, including 140 separate incidents of him calling someone “dopey” or “dummy” on Twitter, and you expect him to hold his mouth just because the guy is a Mexican?
Jamelle Bouie–Slate
On Feb. 6, 2017 Bouie examined the White Nationalist project and advocates taking root in the White House, examining an essay written under the pseudonym, Publius Decius Mus:
he wrote, hailing the real estate mogul as the only figure who understood the stakes, who would beat back these “foreigners” and preserve America’s democratic tradition as Decius saw it. Not a tradition of pluralism, but one of exclusion, in which white Americans stand as the only legitimate players in political life. A dictatorship of the herrenvolk.