NEW YORK (AP), — As he stared out at a crowd of faces at a Texas fairground in Texas, Donald Trump lamented about his legal problems and blamed malicious prosecutors.
“These prosecutors were vicious and horrible. They are racists, and they’re very sick. They want you.”
He repeated his racism charge, but omitted an obvious detail: The prosecutors are Black.
His diatribe gave the impression that Trump, who rode politics of white grievance to the White House, believes he cannot be treated fairly in the hands of Black officials.
These comments echo racist messages that have become increasingly popular in recent years, namely that Black people and minorities are gaining power and will take revenge on white people or treat white people the same way they have been treated.
This is one of the main fears fueling the white supremacy movement. It’s the so-called “white substitution theory”, which predicts that people of color will replace whites in the country’s power dynamics and social structure.
These are the same excuses they use to justify Jim Crow laws and their treatment of African Americans. This is just a repeat of what we’ve already seen in our country,” stated Brian Middleton, a Black District Attorney from Fort Bend County, Texas. It is southwest of Houston.
Trump’s attacks on prosecutors are not new. Trump often attacks prosecutors when his political and business dealings are under investigation.
Biogtry has been a long-standing accusation against the former president. Trump had previously called U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curriel a “hater” before the 2016 election. This was because Curiel’s Hispanic heritage and Trump’s promise to build a wall between America and Mexico.
After the violent 2017 Charlottesville demonstrations by white supremacists, he stated at a news conference that there were both “very fine people on both sides”.
He hadn’t accused his prosecutors before of racism — but then, up until the beginning of the year one of those attorneys had been Cyrus Vance Jr. who is white.
He now faces a variety of Black prosecutors, including New York Attorney General Letitia Jam; Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (Vance’s successor) and Fani Willis, Fulton County, Georgia DA, as well as Rep. Bennie Thompson who is leading the congressional investigation into Jan. 6 insurrection. Critics say Trump’s rhetoric is becoming more aggressive, possibly because he realizes that his base is open to more outward racism.
“It intensifies the discourse and makes it explicit racial,” stated Casey Kelly, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln communications professor who has for years scanned transcripts of Trump speeches.
He claimed that New York’s white population was being left behind for antiviral treatment at a rally in Arizona.
Kelly stated that Trump now uses the probes against him and the prosecutors that were behind them as evidence of a larger pattern that white Americans don’t have a future in America. Kelly also said that Kelly is the only one who can fight for their rights.
Michael Steele, an African American who was more than a decade old, stated that Trump was being Trump.
Steele said, “If he is able to race bait it, he will.” Steele stated that these prosecutors, these Black people, are coming after me — The White Man.”
Steele, who is a member the Lincoln Project, a Republican group that opposes Trump, said, “They didn’t just wake up and decide, ‘I’m gonna spend city resources and state resources for Donald Trump.’” His corruption does not matter if the prosecutors are Black or White. He, his actions, his behaviour, and his decisions are all what matter. That’s the responsibility.
There is evidence to show that Trump’s words had consequences. Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who requested a judge to appoint a special grand jury to investigate possible “criminal disruptions” by Trump and his associates during the 2020 election and its aftermath, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution she has been subject to more racist slurs and threats since Trump’s Texas rally.
Willis wrote to the FBI calling Trump’s rhetoric alarming. She asked for the FBI to assess the security of the county courthouse, and to provide personnel to guard the area from possible attacks, such as the one that occurred at the U.S. Capitol last year.
Trump has his defenders. Harrison Fields was a Trump ally. He is now a spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds from Florida. Donalds is one of two Black Republicans currently serving in Congress. He stated that the country must address more pressing issues.
Fields stated that Donald Trump views Trump’s comments as “a nonstory”, as does 98% of Americans who aren’t in the media or the Democrat Party.
He stated that “The congressman is focused upon issues that really matter, which is supporting America-first policies by the former president.”
Trump’s accusations of Black prosecutorial power are rebutted by the argument that it took too long.
The law and order system in the country has subjugated African Americans since slavery, Jim Crow, and even today as some states have adopted anti-protest laws and stricter control over voting, some might argue. Black prisoners still hold a large number of prison cells and jails.
The Reflective Democracy Campaign’s 2019 study found that only 5% were from a country with elected prosecutors. However, Black women and men now head some of the largest national prosecutorial offices, including the ones in New York City, Chicago, Dallas, and Detroit.
Trump is questioning their legitimacy,” said Diana Becton (another Black district attorney serving in Contra Costa County in San Francisco Bay),
“His accusations certainly are not subtle. Becton stated that they are frightening. “It’s almost like saying that we are out of place and are being uppity, and we will be restored to our place by people who are like him.”
The Texas DA Middleton said that it is not about unfair laws. There are two standards for how laws are applied. One solution is to diversify those who enforce the laws.
He said that “certain people get away with it and so we need people willing to hold people such as Donald Trump accountable.” “Where we have to have people in places of authority who will ensure that everyone is treated the same according to the law,” he added.
