Blog | Civil Rights

Trump at One Year: Giving Cover to Hate

Donald Trump
Gage Skidmore

President Donald Trump's actions and rhetoric over his first year run counter to the values of working people. Here are some of the ways he has used his office to divide our country, abandon our values, and give cover to racism and other forms of bigotry.

Attacks Against the LGBTQ Community

  • Tried to ban trans people from joining and openly serving in the military, falsely claiming that trans-related health care is expensive.
  • Nearly one-third of his judicial nominees have anti-LGBTQ records.
  • Appointed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. As opponents have feared, Gorsuch has not been friendly to LGBTQ Americans. He dissented against a ruling that requires same-sex parents to be listed on birth certificates.
  • Rescinded guidance from the Barack Obama administration telling K-12 schools that receive federal funding that trans students are protected under federal civil rights law.
  • Rescinded another Obama-era guideline that said trans workers are protected under civil rights law, enabling the federal government to argue that anti-trans discrimination isn't illegal under federal law.
  • Argued in favor of Masterpiece Cakeshop before the Supreme Court, claiming that business owners should be able to discriminate against same-sex couples for religious or "moral" justifications.
  • Filed a legal brief claiming that the federal Civil Rights Act doesn’t protect gay and bisexual workers.
  • Has legally supported numerous other anti-LGBTQ court cases, including defending North Carolina's anti-trans bathroom law and a case that would allow discrimination against trans people in health care.
  • Created the Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom to reportedly work to enable health care providers’ religious liberties aren’t violated, which many see as asking for a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people.
  • Fired all the members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS without explanation.
  • Failed to recognize LGBTQ Pride Month.
  • Proposed ending data collection programs about LGBTQ seniors and people with disabilities, erasing evidence of potential discrimination.

Attacks Against Women

  • Reversed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, making it easier for federal contractors with chronic violations of discrimination laws to keep getting federal funding.
  • Proposed a Department of Labor budget cut of 21%, which would hamper work-family protections, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act.
  • Signed a bill allowing states to block Title X funding for providers that also offer abortion with nonfederal funds, including Planned Parenthood.
  • Proposed denying Planned Parenthood clinics Medicaid reimbursements for serving low-income patients.
  • Reinstated and expanded the Global Gag Rule, preventing recipients of foreign aid from offering any information, referrals, services or advocacy regarding abortion care, even if they don't use U.S. funds to do so.
  • Cut funding to the U.N. Population Fund, which works on women’s rights worldwide, maternal health, family planning and gender equity programs.
  • His pick to run Medicare and Medicaid, Seema Verma, argued that maternity coverage should be optional for insurers.
  • Proposed a $50 million reduction in funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program.
    Promised to make permanent the Hyde Amendment, which restricts Medicaid coverage of abortion.
  • Released a short list of potential judges for the Supreme Court that was filled with anti-choice jurists.
  • Nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, a man with a history of arguing against the legal foundation of Roe v. Wade.
  • Defended conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly from sexual harassment allegations, as part of a history of defending those who have been accused of harassing women.
  • Under his immigration crackdown, unauthorized immigrant women face a threat of deportation if they report domestic violence or sexual abuse.
  • Under his health care plan, insurers could stop covering funding for birth control, breast-feeding support, and domestic violence screening and counseling.
  • Eliminated a ban that kept federal contractors from using forced arbitration clauses for sexual assault, sexual harassment, or discrimination allegations.
  • His Cabinet has just four women. They occupy lower-ranking positions than the white men in the administration.
  • Appointed three men to federal government positions for every woman he appointed.
  • Neglected to fill women’s leadership roles across the federal government, including the global women’s issues ambassador and the Office on Violence Against Women director.
  • Chose staff with extreme anti-woman positions and put them into positions of power.
  • Proposed requiring new moms receiving Medicaid to work within 60 days of giving birth or risk losing their insurance.
  • His health care plan could eliminate maternity and newborn coverage for millions of women and slash benefits, raise premiums, and increase out-of-pocket costs for millions more.

Attacks Against People of Color, Immigrants and Religious Groups

  • Established a taxpayer-funded commission to develop and advocate for policies to reduce voter fraud, an almost non-existent issue whose supposed remedies disproportionately harm people of color.
  • Proposed eliminating 121 staff positions at the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division.
  • More than 90% of his nominees for federal judgeships are white.
  • Proposed eliminating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Justice, which protects low-income communities and communities of color from environmental hazards.
  • Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated Puerto Rico, putting 3.4 million American lives at risk. He responded by saying that Puerto Ricans "want everything to be done for them."
  • Reversed an Obama administration plan to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in national parks.
  • Opened up much of the Bears Ears National Monument for commercial activities, including potential mining and oil and gas development, despite the fact that it contains countless Native American ceremonial sites, historical artifacts, and dwellings.
  • Pursued harsher penalties for drug-related crimes, increasing the overincarceration of African Americans.
  • Rolled back programs designed to build trust between local law enforcement and the communities they serve and provide local agencies with technical assistance.
  • Reversed a Justice Department plan to reduce the use of private prisons.
  • Supports cutting $21 million from tribal law enforcement, despite a lack of necessary resources to address high rates of rape and murder on tribal lands.
  • Pardoned former Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona, who was found guilty of illegally profiling and detaining Latinos based on their perceived immigration status.
  • Proposed eliminating the Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency, which is the only federal agency that provides business consulting services to people of color who wish to start or expand their own businesses.
  • Wants to consolidate the Labor Department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, decreasing their combined enforcement budgets by millions.
  • Halted the implementation of the Obama administration's Employer Information Report, which would have confidentially collected pay data broken down by gender, race and ethnicity, in order to help uncover wage discrimination.
  • Asked Congress to eliminate the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which serves 1.1 million low-income students of color.
  • Is reportedly diverting Justice Department Civil Rights Division resources to attack affirmative action programs.
  • Proposed slashing the budget for the Bureau of Indian Education by $64 million.
  • Supported a tax bill that could lead to cuts to programs that fund historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and tribal colleges.
  • Rescinded a federal grant designed to help right-wing extremists move away from radical ideas.
  • Supported a health care proposal that would have left 8.7 million people of color without Medicaid coverage by 2026.
  • Proposed cutting $6.2 billion from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which provides subsidized housing to poor people and people of color.
  • Wants to slash $50 million from Housing and Urban Development's Indian country housing programs and completely eliminate housing funding for the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs.
  • Made several attempts to ban Muslims from entering the country.
  • Slashed the target number of refugees to be welcomed into the United States to the lowest levels in decades.
  • Ended the DACA initiative, potentially disrupting the lives of nearly 800,000 recipients, the vast majority of whom are Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander, or black, leaving many vulnerable to detention and deportation.
  • Ended the protected status of 50,000 Haitians displaced by the nation’s 2010 earthquake and ensuing crises that expanded problems on the island.
  • Encouraged aggressive immigration enforcement.
  • Broke a campaign promise to not deport DACA recipients in April as Juan Manuel Montes became the first known DACA recipient with active status to be deported by Trump.
  • Carried out immigration raids that could have harmful effects on birth outcomes. A study found that stress created by immigration raids is linked to an increase in premature births and low birth weights.
  • Threatened to split up families fleeing extreme violence in nations with high rates of violence against women and girls.
  • Threatened to pull funding from sanctuary cities, which could lead to families losing access to critical programs.
  • Muslim Americans have seen a rise in bigotry and attacks after Trump's election, with experts blaming much of the "tremendous levels of fear" among American Muslims on Trump.
  • Not only didn't mention Jewish people on Holocaust Remembrance Day, but reportedly blocked the release of a statement that did.
  • A white nationalist leader facing assault charges defended himself by claiming that he was acting based on the words of Trump.
  • Suggested that $20 million in federal funding for historically black colleges and universities might be unconstitutional because of race.
  • Stressed the need to protect the West against forces from the South and East that threaten western values.
  • After white supremacist violence erupted in Charlottesville, he condemned "many sides" for the violence, but failed to mention white supremacists, and later falsely claimed that protesters supporting a Robert E. Lee statue were "quietly" showing their support, while counter-protesters were "very, very violent."
  • Defended statues honoring Confederates as part of "our history and heritage."
  • Said NFL owners should fire players who kneel during the national anthem to protest police brutality.
  • Belittled Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for claiming Native American heritage, calling her "Pocahontas."
  • Retweeted three anti-Muslim tweets by British far-right leader Jayda Fransen.
  • Said that Haitian immigrants "all have AIDS" and suggested that Nigerians lived in huts.
  • Reportedly said that people from Haiti and Africa come from "shithole countries," unlike predominantly white countries like Norway.

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