Trump disgraced himself today

At 3:00 this afternoon, with hunched shoulders, a bright yellow tie that matched the golden drapery behind the stage, and the familiar look of someone ready to give his latest performance, not lead a country, the President of the United States shuffled into the East Room of the White House to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Black History Month.

And when he finally reached the podium and looked out at the room filled with Black leaders, honorees, and invited guests gathered to recognize a century of history, resilience, and sacrifice, he launched into a rambling speech, making the entire event about himself. He turned a celebration of Black history into another opportunity for his midterm election campaign.

In between campaign slogans and propaganda, he was surprisingly alert. Downright jolly. Smiling, pointing at faces in the crowd, even making strange kissy faces at people. For someone who, starting around midnight, had spent the previous night posting conspiracy theories and far-right propaganda on Truth Social, he looked like he’d had the best sleep of his life. And maybe he had. Because whatever this event was supposed to be, whatever it was supposed to mean, it clearly didn’t weigh on him at all.

He started by speaking about the passing of Reverend Jesse Jackson, the towering civil rights leader who died yesterday at 84. A protégé of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson spent more than six decades fighting for justice, equality, and the right to vote. He was the first Black American to gain real traction as a presidential candidate. He ran twice for the Democratic nomination, registered millions of new voters, and changed the landscape of American politics forever. He was there at the Lorraine Motel when King was assassinated. He carried that weight for the rest of his life.

And when Trump stood at the podium to honor him, this is what came out: “He was a piece of work, but he was a good man.” He praised Jackson’s “street smarts.” He said Jackson understood him. He called him “gregarious.” And then he quickly moved on, because that was enough. That was all the space he was willing to give a man who spent his life fighting for the people in that room.

And what came next was worse. One by one, Trump brought people to the stage. Not to honor Black history, but to have them honor him. Alice Marie Johnson, the woman he pardoned from federal drug and money laundering convictions, who now serves as his White House “Pardon Czar,” took the podium to praise him. “This president, President Donald Trump, brought me from the prison pit to the White House!” she exclaimed. “Don’t let anyone tell you that this president right here, Donald Trump…is not for Black America, because he cares.” The irony of that statement was staggering. It might have been lost in that room, but it wasn’t lost on the rest of us. Because only this president would turn a Black History Month celebration into a personal loyalty parade. Only this president would use the stories of the criminals he pardoned as proof of his own greatness. And only this president would stand in that room, smiling and basking in the praise, less than two weeks after sharing a racist video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.

He didn’t mention that video today. He didn’t apologize for it. He didn’t even mention Barack Obama, the first Black president in our nation’s history, on a day meant to honor Black history. Instead, he rattled off a list of Black celebrities he considers his friends, as if proximity to them makes it impossible for him to be racist. He name-dropped Mike Tyson, a convicted rapist, saying Tyson always defends him when people call him racist. “Whenever they come out, and they say, ‘Trump’s a racist,’” he told the room, “Mike Tyson goes, ‘He’s not a racist. He’s my friend.”

He gushed over Nicki Minaj, her “beautiful skin,” her nails, gesturing with his hands to show how long they were, asking if they were real. At a Black History Month event. He mentioned Herschel Walker, his own ambassador, and couldn’t remember where he’d sent him. “I don’t know. Bahamas? Bermuda?” he said. Then added: “Whatever. He talked about Lawrence Taylor and bragged that his own golf game was better.

And through all of it, people in the crowd were talking over him. And he just kept going. Looping back to the same handful of phrases he always uses. Like a wind-up toy that only knows one direction.

Maybe 20% of the time, he was actually talking about Black Americans. The rest was what it always is. Biden. The “stolen” election. His approval ratings. How great the economy is. How much he’s done for everyone. The same broken record he plays at every public appearance, no matter the occasion. He never seems to realize, or care, that there are other people in the room with stories and histories and pain that have nothing to do with him. It’s just a loop in his head.

And today, he played that loop in front of a room full of people whose ancestors built this country in chains, whose parents marched and bled for rights now being stripped away under his watch, and whose history he is actively working to erase. Because that’s the part that makes this so much worse than just a bad speech. This isn’t just a man who made a celebration about himself. This is a man whose administration is systematically dismantling everything that event was supposed to represent.

His administration has gutted diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the federal government. His Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, purged some of the military’s highest-ranking officers, including its most prominent Black and female leaders. His team removed all references to slavery from a federal exhibit at Philadelphia’s President’s House on Independence Mall, until a judge ordered them restored just days ago. He signed an executive order directing a review of national museums and landmarks that depict “founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.” That’s the language they use. “Negative light.” As if slavery is a matter of perspective, and the truth about what happened to Black people in this country is something that needs to be softened or hidden, so it doesn’t make anyone uncomfortable. This is the systematic erasure of Black history, happening under the banner of “restoring truth.” And he stood in the middle of it today, celebrating Black History Month like none of it was happening.

I’ve been thinking about his performance all day, and I keep coming back to 1941, when the Nazi regime distributed propaganda booklets across occupied Poland that described clean hospitals for Jewish residents, soup kitchens, vocational training, and newspapers being provided by German authorities. The booklets painted a picture of care and compassion. They were designed to convince the German public and the international community that the regime was treating Jewish people humanely. And while those booklets were being printed and distributed, the regime was building the infrastructure for the “Final Solution”.

And how in 1944, the Nazis turned the Theresienstadt concentration camp into what they called a “model ghetto” ahead of a visit from the International Red Cross. They “beautified” the camp. They forced Jewish residents to perform plays and concerts. They filmed a propaganda movie showing elderly and prominent Jewish prisoners living in comfort, smiling, and attending cultural events. It was a performance, staged for the world, meant to create the illusion that the regime was not doing what it was doing. And after the Red Cross left, most of the people who appeared in that film were sent to Auschwitz.

That is what a staged celebration looks like when the people being “honored” are the same people being targeted by the policies of the regime hosting the event.

I am not saying what is happening in America is identical to the Holocaust. I am saying the strategy is the same: a visual record created to mask and manipulate, “Look how much I care about these people.” And then you go back to the work of dismantling their rights, erasing their history, and building systems designed to silence their political power and access to the ballot box.

Trump shared a video depicting the Obamas as apes less than two weeks ago. His administration is removing the history of slavery from public monuments. And today, he stood in a room full of Black Americans and told the world how much he loves them. That is propaganda. And we need to call it what it is.

And then there was the language. Something I almost couldn’t believe I heard, which we all should pay very close attention to. During his remarks, Trump said, “100 percent of all net job creation is going to American-born citizens.” And it brought me back to hours earlier, when at her press briefing, Karoline Leavitt used the same exact phrase. She said all net job growth under Trump “has gone to native born Americans, ending the disgraceful pattern under Joe Biden of job gains going to noncitizens and illegal aliens.” It troubled me then, and it rang louder when I heard it again because this is coordinated messaging. And it should terrify us all. When you are a citizen of the United States, you are American. Full stop. Whether you were born here or immigrated, whether your family came over on the Mayflower or through a naturalization ceremony last year, you are an American. That’s what citizenship means.

But this administration is now drawing a line between those who were born here and those who earned their citizenship through immigration. A two-tier social class system, where one group is granted full protection and dignity, and the other is forced to prove it deserves to belong, all while being denied the full rights of citizenship. And they are doing it through language first, because that’s how it always starts. Before the laws change, the words change. Before the rights are stripped, the categories are drawn. This is how every authoritarian government in history has begun to separate “real” citizens from the ones they plan to target next. And it was said at a Black History Month honoring the history of a community that continues to have to fight centuries later just to be recognized as citizens at all. The cruelty was the point.

And if you think this will stop at language, we need to look at what they’re building. They are ramping up construction of detention facilities that could hold 92,600 people. And we need to ask ourselves: if the borders are effectively closed right now, and if Trump’s immigration sweeps have been as successful as he claims, then who are these new detention centers for? Because if we follow the logic, the answer becomes horrifying. First, they came for the undocumented. Then they started going after the people who are here legally, who are in the middle of the immigration process, who have pending cases, and who are waiting for their paperwork to be finalized. People who followed the rules and are being punished anyway. That’s already happening. But “American-born citizens” tells you where this is going next. After they’ve removed all of those “undesirables,” is the next target naturalized citizens? The people who immigrated here legally, went through every step, took the oath, and earned their citizenship.

This new language is designed to tell those people: you may have a piece of paper that says you’re American, but you’re not American the way we are. You’re a different kind of citizen. A lesser kind. And it won’t stop there. It never does. Then they’ll go after the families. The children who were born here but whose parents weren’t. They’ll find a way to say that birthright citizenship doesn’t apply the way it used to, even if your parents were here legally and documented when you were born. They’ve already tried to challenge the 14th Amendment. They’ve already floated executive orders on birthright citizenship. The groundwork is already laid.

And somewhere in the middle of all of that, they’ll come for people like you and me. The ones speaking out. The ones sharing. The ones with a voice and a platform who refuse to stay quiet about what’s happening. Because that’s the final stage of every authoritarian playbook. First you remove the people who don’t look like you. Then you remove the people who don’t think like you. And by the time the rest of the country notices, there’s no one left to speak up. That’s what 92,600 beds looks like. That’s what “American-born citizens” sounds like when you follow it to its logical end. And that’s why we all need to understand that this is not about immigration. This is about control. This is about building the infrastructure and the language to remove anyone this regime considers a threat, and they are telling us exactly who is next.

So what do we do? We make sure that the voting results margin is so overwhelming in favor of the democrats that no amount of lies can explain it away. And we start preparing for every fight that comes after the votes are counted, because they are coming. Trump and the Republicans will not accept any results as legitimate, free, and fair unless they are the winners.

Because winning the midterms is only the beginning. If we take back Congress and eventually take back the White House, and then do nothing: if we just move on and turn the page, then every detention bed they built stays built. Every executive order stays on the books as a blueprint. Every precedent they set becomes permission for the next person who tries this. And the next one will be smarter.

The world is watching us. Our allies don’t trust us. Our adversaries are emboldened. The damage this administration has done to America’s standing in the world cannot be repaired in one election cycle. It’s going to take decades. And the only way, the absolute only way, that the process of healing even begins is if we show the world that we are serious about accountability.

That means trials and consequences. Not revenge, but justice. Real, transparent, judicial accountability for the people who tried to destroy our democracy. The world needs to see that we hold the powerful to the same standard as everyone else. That we didn’t just vote them out and move on. That we didn’t turn the page and pretend it never happened.

The world needs to see us acknowledge what happened. They need to see us vote these people out, hold them accountable in courts of law, and demonstrate that this will never happen again. That is the only way the world starts to trust us again. That is the only way our allies believe America is still a democracy worth defending. And that is the only way we begin the very long and painful process of truly becoming the country we were always supposed to be, one that finally delivers on the promise it was founded on for everyone.

Sometimes it’s exhausting being in this space, watching, day after day, what powerful people in this country are willing to do to tear it apart. And in those moments, I think back to the people who came before us. The ones who faced violence, cruelty, and injustice far worse than what most of us have ever known, and still stood up anyway.

I think of the women who marched for suffrage. The mothers who boycotted segregated buses. The teenagers who sat at lunch counters. The children, like Ruby Bridges, who walked through screaming mobs just to attend school. None of them knew if what they were doing would work. Many of them were terrified. But they showed up. They kept going. And because they did, so many of us have rights that didn’t exist a generation earlier. Those are the real Americans. The ones who put it all on the line so that future generations could have the chance at a better life. And we owe them the same fight. Just like we owe it to the ones who will come after us. Because history doesn’t just demand it, it shows us that it works.

And we saw it again today. The FDA reversed its decision on Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine, agreeing to review the application after initially refusing to even look at it. This matters because it proves that pushback works, even against this administration’s assault on science and evidence-based medicine. When the biotech industry pushed back, researchers spoke out, and when the public demanded accountability, the FDA backed down. That same principle applies to everything we are fighting for. And we can’t let up, and I know we never will.

We are up for the fight. We have always been up to the fight. And I have to believe, with everything in me, that when we look back on this dark chapter, we will be able to say we didn’t just survive it. We ended it. We held them accountable. And we built something better from the wreckage. That’s why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather

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This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.