Watch President Donald Trump and follow his actions carefully. Even in the early days of his administration, he is telling you what he thinks about you and what he plans to do. A case in point: Those issues he removed from the White House website.
As soon as Trump took the oath of office, the WhiteHouse.gov site changed drastically. And you should be alarmed. All of a sudden, the sections devoted to civil rights, LGBTQ rights, climate change, health care and people with disabilities are gone.
If you care about these important issues, you need to go to the archived Obama White House website. There were rumors that Trump had removed certain terms such as “LGBT” and “climate change,” but in reality — even worse — those pages are gone.
Replacing the civil rights page is a section called “Standing Up For Our Law Enforcement Community.” Don’t expect President Trump to stand up for your civil rights. The new president, who campaigned on “law and order,” more racial profiling and increased police monitoring of Black communities, was endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police. The nation’s largest police union endorsed Trump with the demand that he bring back legalized racial profiling to federal agencies.
Trump’s attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions, is a racist who has shown nothing but hostility towards civil rights and voting rights and outright disdain for people of color throughout his career. And the new occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue chose the King Day weekend to pick a fight with civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis and disrespect the man’s legacy.
While Obama was interested in criminal justice reform and addressing police violence, Trump and his people made it clear that Blue Lives Matter, that there is a war on police, and promoted the notion that Black Lives Matter activists are lawless thugs and criminals.
“One of the fundamental rights of every American is to live in a safe community. A Trump Administration will empower our law enforcement officers to do their jobs and keep our streets free of crime and violence,” says the new White House site. “The Trump Administration will be a law and order administration. President Trump will honor our men and women in uniform and will support their mission of protecting the public. The dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America is wrong. The Trump Administration will end it.”
And instead of discussing climate change, the new White House page has a section called “An America First Energy Plan.” Trump has said in no uncertain terms that he believes climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese. “For too long, we’ve been held back by burdensome regulations on our energy industry. President Trump is committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule. Lifting these restrictions will greatly help American workers, increasing wages by more than $30 billion over the next 7 years,” according to the Trump White House site.
Similarly, as Trump, his surrogates and advisers have displayed hostility towards the LGBTQ community and people with disabilities and vowed to eliminate Obamacare, it stands to reason they would erase any mention of that subject matter.
But it goes deeper. These dramatic changes to the White House website mirror the drastic and draconian cuts this president plans to make to the government. To sum it up, he’s getting rid of everything. If he gets his way, Trump will cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. He will eliminate the Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and cut the Civil Rights and Environment and Natural Resources divisions. He also wants to gut the Violence Against Women Grants, which fund state and local anti-domestic abuse programs, and the Legal Services Corporation, which provides free legal assistance to the poor. Also on the chopping block are the Minority Business Administration, which helps minority business owners obtain funding and resources, and the Economic Development Agency, which assists low income people with jobs programs.
And he’ll privatize public broadcasting and dismantle the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Trillions of dollars are at stake — anything and everything that is important if you care about the positive role of government in society and promoting the general welfare.
So, the changes to WhiteHouse.gov point to much more.
“At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other,” Trump said in his inauguration speech, channeling his inner Hitler. The angry white man has returned, and if you are not one of his kind, you need to step back. That means he expects you to get in line, stop complaining, and expect nothing, as he exploits the people and defiles the land. You have no rights he is bound to respect. Know this.
Follow David A. Love on Twitter at @davidalove.