Trump Doubles Down on Racism

Blames low-income people, minorities for ‘ruining’ suburbia

 By, Maya King and Laura Barron-Lopez/CNN

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump refused to condemn white supremacists. On Wednesday, he appeared to blame suburban, low-income people of color for “ruining this American dream.”

A day after he told the far-right Proud Boys, to “stand by,” igniting outrage from Democrats and concern from Republicans, the president seemed to equate having a low income to being a minority. He also claimed falsely that Joe Biden wants to turn Minnesota into a refugee state.

Speaking to a mostly white crowd in Duluth, Minn., on Wednesday, Trump gave a shout-out to the suburbs, particularly “women in the suburbs.” He boasted he was the person to end an Obama-era fair housing rule, which he said brought “low-income housing” to suburbia.

“By the way, just so we can get this straight, 30 percent of the people in the suburbs are low-income people. Thirty percent of the people in the suburbs are minorities. And so we’re ruining this American dream for everybody,” Trump said.

“They zone you out, they build low-income housing next to your house,” Trump continued. “And then I hear I’m not doing well in the suburbs. I’m not doing well in the suburbs,are you people crazy?”

One charitable interpretation of his comments is that minorities and low-income people are themselves negatively affected by policies the president opposes. But in his boasts of saving suburbia, Trump seemed to insinuate that minorities and low-income people are overrunning the suburbs and displacing the white voters the president consistently tries to appeal to. Trump repeatedly uses vague language when talking about the suburbs that allows audiences to apply their own interpretations.

During the debate on Wednesday, the president also decried racial sensitivity training in government agencies, declaring, “I ended it because it’s racist.” He vilified the training, which is designed to make workplaces more equitable and tolerant environments, as a program that was “teaching people to hate our country.