Trump will stop at nothing to ensure the political dominance of White people in America
“We’ve dropped (the price of) the infertility drugs to make lots of Trump babies, I’m hoping by the midterms.” That bizarre remark was made recently by Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
After four years of the first Trump administration and nearly one year into the second, many of us have become desensitized to this kind of commentary – but not Black women. We know the quiet part spoken out loud when we hear it.
Dr. Oz’s remarks may get written off as a joke, but there is nothing funny about the undercurrent of what his words actually mean. This administration will stop at nothing to ensure the political dominance of White people in this country.
By eliminating federal social safety nets, gutting Medicaid, increasing barriers to maternal health care and much more, this administration is creating the perfect storm to control who is able to have children, and who is not.
“Trump babies” born ahead of the midterm elections in 2026 won’t vote until 2044, but after decades of listening to phrases like “welfare queens,” we know a dog whistle when we hear one. To understand this moment, it helps to look across generations. [Continue reading…]
When Stephen Miller, one of President Trump’s top advisers, makes the case for the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, he is focused not only on the actions of those who came to the United States from another country.
Increasingly, he blames their children as well.
Mr. Miller’s belief that seven decades of immigration has produced millions of people who take more than they give — an assertion that has been refuted by years of economic data — is at the heart of the Trump administration’s campaign to restrict immigration and deport immigrants already in the country.
But he is now stressing an argument that immigrants bring problems to the United States that extend through generations.
“With a lot of these immigrant groups, not only is the first generation unsuccessful. Again, Somalia is a clear example here,” Mr. Miller said on Fox News this month, adding, “You see persistent issues in every subsequent generation. So you see consistent high rates of welfare use, consistent high rates of criminal activity, consistent failures to assimilate.”
The attack line comes as the administration is calling for the Supreme Court to uphold Mr. Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, the long-held principle that children born on American soil are automatically citizens.
The argument by Mr. Miller and others in the administration hearkens back to the anti-migrant rhetoric of the early 20th century, when lawmakers used the 1924 National Origins Act to impose strict quotas to keep out immigrants from Asia and southern and Eastern Europe, and their families.
And while there is no legal basis to revoke U.S. citizenship from U.S.-born children and grandchildren of immigrants, Mr. Miller’s statements signal an even more aggressive effort to remake the country by shedding the recent arrivals and their offspring. [Continue reading…]