Beware White People: Trump and Vance Hate You Too

Yes, Donald Trump hates you too!  Wikimedia commons

Donald Trump’s bona fides as a white supremacist are, of course, well-documented. If you need a couple of stark reminders, just recall his statements after torch-carrying white supremacists chanting “Jews will not replace us!” marched on Charlottesville in August 2017 at a “Unite the Right Rally.”  This event sparked his controversial comment that “there were fine people on both sides.”  Or recall his statement in the presidential debate with Joe Biden in 2020 when he sidestepped calls to denounce white supremacy and then, when provoked, called on the Proud Boys, a right-wing hate group, to “stand back and stand by.”  One could go on.

Certainly, Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance stoke racial antagonism and foment hate against people of color, LBGTQ folks, and, of course, women.

What tends to get overlooked in their hate-mongering is their hatred and neglect of—even antagonism toward--average white folk as well. 

That’s right. Trump and Vance hate white people too, especially the white working class.

While their hatred of white people is often clouded behind their excessive anti-immigrant, racist, and misogynist rhetoric, Trump’s and Vance’s recent behavior evidence quite starkly that white people not only do not fall within their net of favor but are also indiscriminate targets of their terror and hostility.

Let’s just look at recent events in Springfield, Ohio and at the situation of the victims suffering in  the aftermath of devastation Hurricane Helene left in its wake.

In late September, Trump and Vance unleashed a reign of terror against all the residents of the otherwise quiet small town of Springfield, Ohio when they persisted in spewing anti-immigrant rhetoric they knew was rooted in complete falsehoods, erroneously claiming “illegal” Haitian immigrants, who had come to the U.S. legally, were eating people’s pets. Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck had informed Trump and Vance that these reports were false and asked them to cease and desist from this inflammatory rhetoric, as did Republican Governor Mike Dewine.

The effect of this spurious anti-immigrant sentiment was the descent of white supremacist forces on this hamlet resulting in bomb threats accompanied by hateful language that closed schools, government buildings, and local universities and overall shrouded the community in fear and chaos, disrupting everyday life for people of all colors.  White supremacist groups such as the Proud Boys have marched through the city, and a group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan distributed fliers characterizing Haitian immigrants as “disease-ridden and filthy.”

The average white people in Springfield suffer from this chaos and fear as well, from the bomb threats and disruptions to everyday life. They are not elevated by Trump’s and Vance’s ignorant and mendacious white supremacy; rather they are subjected to chaos, anxiety, and social tension.

Moreover, Trump’s and Vance’s actions also constitute damaging economic policy that works against the interest of the white voters they pretend to favor with their anti-immigrant racism and white supremacism. This is because the influx of Haitian immigrants actually revitalized the economy, creating jobs and higher wages.

Indeed, Trump’s and Vance’s anti-immigrant policy, it must be underlined, is absolutely against the interests of white Americans and all Americans.  Immigrants have been essential by all respectable accounts in solving the U.S. labor shortage, which helps curb inflation, and have been a key factor in driving the success of the U.S. economy and spurring job growth.

But just as Trump and Vance have no care for the welfare of racial minorities, women, and LGBTQ people, they really have no care for the average white American either. They don’t want white voters to understand how immigrants improve the U.S. economy for all; they want them to hate and vote out of hate so they–Trump and Vance and the wealthy they represent–can enjoy political power.

This shouldn’t surprise anybody. Trump has long been an enemy of unions and is known for not paying his workers.  He even bragged recently about his refusals to pay his workers overtime.

So, while Trump and Vance loudly blow the white supremacist whistles, it should be clear from their own behaviors that they don’t support the interests of white workers and white people generally.  The policies of Trump and Vance that accompany their anti-immigrant and racist rhetoric do not elevate white people, especially not white working people; they work against these people’s and all people’s interests.

We saw this lack of concern for people of all colors in the wake of Hurricane Helene as well. Trump persistently spread lies about the federal government’s response and about about the aid FEMA was providing and would provide, with the effect, again, of fostering confusion among people suffering and in grave need so they weren’t sure where to turn for the immediate assistance the Biden-Harris administration is and has been assuring.

Trump and Vance once again showed they care nothing for the welfare of people, white or otherwise.  They care about their own political careers and pocketbooks, and, in Trump’s case, staying out of prison.

The rhetoric of Trump and Vance overtly targets the usual suspects of minority or “special interest” groups as unworthily receiving attention and special treatment while the white working class has been forgotten and ignored, stirring up antagonisms and resentments that obscure the real culprits of social and economic inequality, namely a corporate and billionaire class that greedily insists on wielding social and political power and refuses to pay even a couple cents more on the dollar to ameliorate economic inequality just a little bit so average Americans can just meet their basic needs without worry.

Just because Trump and Vance don’t voice their hatred of the average white American doesn’t mean it’s not there.  It’s precisely because they don’t voice it that it’s so powerful. Trump and Vance work to get white Americans blaming others for their economic insecurity and sense of powerlessness. It’s the women who won’t have babies! It’s transgender people wanting to play volleyball! It’s gay people wanting to exist and, worse, get married! It’s immigrants eating our pets!

White America, don’t be fooled. The hate Trump and Vance peddle does not discriminate. They hate you too.