Trump Keeps Targeting Black Folks, and the Reason Why is Staring Us In The Face

President Donald Trump declared a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C. Like our ancestors used to say, if it’s not one thing it’s another with Trump.

“We’re here for a very serious purpose,” the president said in a press conference Monday (Aug. 11). “Something’s out of control. But we’re going to put it in control very quickly…I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse. This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back.”

It’s just the latest in a campaign of Trump seemingly doing things designed to irritate Black folks over the last eight months or so. First, he eradicated DEI from the federal government. Following his lead, some private corporations did the same.

Then, he started attacking Black history by accusing the “Black Smithsonian” of not correctly reflecting American history because it highlights the reality of the slave trade. All the while, he is replacing Confederate monuments that had been torn down by people who think that our country should not have monuments to racists and traitors.

His planned takeover of what Parliament called “Chocolate City” is just his latest affront to Black folks. You could make a case for calling D.C. lawless in the 1980s or 1990s. But in 2025, the city’s crime rate is at a 30-year low.

So why is he doing all this? Why does he keep doing things that target us?

It’s lazy to say racism is the only thing motivating him to do this. After all, he is not racist in a 1960s sic dogs after Black kids kind of way. (Bull Conner was a pioneer in that kind of behavior.)

But he clearly has it out for us. Why? I don’t think the answer is very deep: We have a petty Commander in Chief. In fact, if you look up the word petty in the dictionary, you will see the smiling face of the 45^th and 47^th president of the United States.

He commands complete loyalty from everyone in the Republican Party. And if anyone steps out of line, he threatens their seat. Anytime anyone dares to push back on what he says publicly, he lashes out like he did when Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the White House.

Since he first announced his plans to run for president, Black folks have been critical of Trump. We did not like how he implied that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Then, we did not like how he talked about us on the campaign trail. And we really did not like how he handled the ‘Unite The Right’ white supremacist takeover of Charlottesville, Va. and the BLM protests after the police murdered George Floyd.

Many of us have been critical of him at every turn, and in response he targets us every chance he gets. Trump is petty. It’s that simple.