When it comes to Trump: “It’s the white supremacy, stupid!”—including for Trump’s wealthy backers.

No more exemptions for the rich from racism

Everyone who follows presidential politics knows the famous phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.”  That was coined by James Carville when he was advising Bill Clinton in his 1992 run for the White House. Carville actually hung a sign in campaign headquarters with that mantra to remind candidate Clinton to stay focused on the economy, which was the top concern of voters heading into the 1992 election. Obviously, it worked given Clinton won defeating incumbent GOP President George H.W. Bush.

Flash forward to 2024 and that slogan has been updated by Donald Trump to: “It’s the white supremacy, stupid.” Obviously, Trump’s racism and bigotry is not the top issue for all Americans--but it’s 100% the motivating issue to his base.  Trump is viewed as the defender of white power for his rabid fans—exactly what Trump has strived for with his non-stop demonization of people of color and defense of whiteness.

The examples could fill an encyclopedia—dating back to  his well-documented history of not renting to Black people in the 1970’s to his racist birther campaign versus President Obama. During the 2016 campaign, he frequently reshared posts on Twitter from accounts with large white supremacist followings, such as the account, “White Genocide.”

As President, Trump called “Black Lives Matter” a symbol of “hate” and repeatedly defended Civil War monuments that celebrate white supremacists who fought to defend slavery—even calling them “beautiful.” He referred to Haiti and countries in Africa as “shithole countries” while calling for more immigrants from places like the very white, Norway. And Trump called racial sensitivity trainings “anti-American propaganda” and issued an executive order banning such trainings for federal agencies.

During this campaign, Trump has openly spoken of anti-white discrimination, saying in April, “I think there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country." To correct that, Trump is planning a second-term overhaul of anti-discrimination law that his allies say would “dramatically change the government’s interpretation of Civil Rights-era laws to focus on ‘anti-white racism’ rather than discrimination against people of color.”  Yep, Trump has vowed to focus on ending discrimination against white people—something of concern to 84% of his supporters.

And Trump during this campaign has pledged historic “mass deportations” of non-white immigrants and continues to peddle in anti-Blackness with his lies about Black immigrants in Ohio who he says  are eating people’s pets and “have destroyed the place.” Recent Trump rallies now feature a bone-chilling chant of “Send them back!” after he speaks of the Black and Brown immigrants.  

To sum up: Trump is a white supremacists dream come true.

We all get that preserving white power is what Trump and MAGA are about.  But there has been a tendency to exempt from that view the wealthy, white corporate executives by saying they are only in this for the tax cuts. That has to end.  

At this point we can no longer give a pass to the well-educated, wealthy white people supporting Trump. They, too, must be viewed as being in this for the racism and preservation of white power. After all, they profited under this structure and any change to it could mean a loss of wealth and power.

Just look at Trump loving billionaires Bill Ackman and Elon Musk. Both not only want lower taxes to make more money, they are both very vocally opposed to diversity programs (DEI) just like Trump’s core base. For example, Ackman has written on Musk’s Twitter, “DEI is inherently a racist and illegal movement in its implementation even if it purports to work on behalf of the so-called oppressed.”

And a few days ago, Musk openly embraced the racist “Great Replacement theory” that claims Democrats are bringing in non-whites to replace white people. Musk—an immigrant to America from South Africa—began his tweet by claiming, “Very few Americans realize that, if Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election. Far from being a threat to democracy, he is the only way to save it!”

From there he claimed that Democrats want “illegals” to vote and “are expediting as fast as humanly possible” this plan. He then lied that, “Biden/Harris administration has been flying “asylum seekers”, who are fast-tracked to citizenship, directly into swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Arizona.”

None of this is true. For example, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2023, only 29,000 asylees became naturalized citizens. And those people first had to be granted asylum—which can take many years—and once granted, they then have a five-year process of demonstrating legal permanent residence to apply for citizenship. But facts don’t matter when trying to scare people.

It is relevant that Musk--who is spending $45 million a month to elect Trump—was raised in South Africa during apartheid and as the NY Times noted in “elite, segregated white communities that were littered with anti-Black government propaganda.”  You can understand why Musk is attracted to Trump.

Same goes for the corporate media executives—who studies show are still “overwhelmingly white”--who serve up pro-Trump coverage. Too often we say they do that for the ratings. But in focusing on the revenue component, we are missing that they, too, see what Trump is trafficking in and are on board with it.  I’m not suggesting every white executive supports Trump’s agenda of white power, but we can’t deny that plays a role for some.

Trump knows what his supporters want—from the white men with less than a high school education to the wealthy, well-educated executive. Trump knows talking about lowering grocery prices by 50 cents on a gallon of milk won’t excite and animate them to vote. But the promise of preserving white power will.

Trump--as opposed to Bill Clinton in 1992—does not need anyone to post a sign on the wall of his campaign office reminding him of the top issue. Trump knows full well, “It’s the white supremacy, stupid.”

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