Trump hints at civil rights policy that would help fight 'anti-white racism'

Plus, leaked video shows Texas anti-abortion group advocating for a total ban on abortion, Plan B and IVF.

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Should he assume office again, Donald Trump plans to undo many of the civil rights initiatives undertaken by President Joe Biden, as well as some long-standing federal policies related to racial equality. A future Trump administration, according to a report by Axios published today, 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.” 

Such efforts are almost certainly meant to pander to the former president’s base: 58% of likely Trump voters believe that racial minorities are favored over whites. 

"President Trump is committed to weeding out discriminatory programs and racist ideology across the federal government," Trump campaign spokesperson’s Steven Cheung told Axios. 

The initiative is being undertaken by longtime Trump loyalist and legal advisor Stephen Miller, whose organization America First Legal — which posits itself as a right-wing American Civil Liberties Union — has waged several civil actions against perceived anti-white discrimination. For example, Miller’s group successfully sued the federal government over a proposal that would have allotted $29 billion in pandemic relief spending to restaurants owned by women and people of color. America First Legal had argued that the policy violated the civil rights of white men. 

"This ruling is the first, but crucial, step towards ending government-sponsored racial discrimination," Miller said following the 2021 decision. 

The idea that the post-Civil Rights Era has undermined the social status of white people has long been a hobby horse of the far right. In January 2000, former KKK grand wizard and white supremacist David Duke launched an advocacy organization called European American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO). 

The purpose of EURO, according to its once functional website, was to stand up to a perceived assault on white identity. 

“The civil rights of European Americans are being violated by affirmative action, forced integration and anti-European immigration policies … We face cultural discrimination in the media and education,” the EURO home page declared.

And now, per Miller’s lawfare, it seems that this form of grievance politics will take on supposed “discrimination” in the economic sector as well. 

Local Lens

A new video leaked by Texas Democrats reveals that an anti-abortion group in the state is calling for a criminal justice response for those that receive reproductive health care, including both abortion and in-vitro fertilization (IVF). 

Several Republican officials including Hood County Constable Scott London, Hood County GOP Chair Steve Biggers and Hood County GOP Chair candidate Greg Harrell can be seen in the video attending a January event hosted by the True Texas Project in Granbury, Texas. 

The group, which has worked with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in the past and has connections with the white nationalist Nick Fuentes, platformed Abolish Abortion Texas (AATX) at the Granbury meeting. 

AATX describes itself as a “grassroots organization mobilizing Christians to advocate in the political halls of power for the end of elective abortion in Texas.” 

In the clip, AATX’s Director of Policy Paul Brown can be seen equating IVF and the use of Plan B to a homicide. 

“In short, abortion is murder,” Brown explains in the clip. “And that’s starting at the moment of fertilization … even prior to implantation. So, the Plan B pill, or what's known as the ‘morning after pill,’ which is used to terminate or kill a baby prior to implantation … That is an abortion.” 

“Other forms of abortion … in this category would include what happens in IVF, when a fertilized egg is created, and is often times destroyed,” Brown says later on in the clip. “Those that do are terminating, are destroying human life.”

When a person in the audience asks about exceptions to rape or incest, Brown clarifies that AATX does not support such circumstances as a reason to receive an abortion. 

“We would never endorse or be okay with abortions in the instance of incest or rape,” Brown says. “We shouldn't charge a child with the crimes of their fathers … And there's no evidence that an abortion somehow makes … a woman feel better.”

Brown then goes on to argue that women who elect to receive an abortion are committing murder and that the question of ending abortion on a legal basis is akin to the fight to abolish slavery. 

“I understand your reluctance to call women who get abortion murderers, right? You're in a service where you're trying to help those women. And that's very important. And I have spent a lot of time not [just] in pregnancy resource centers, but at abortion centers doing sidewalk advocacy. I've seen these women,” Brown said. “These are real human beings, but their lives don't matter more than the babies they're killing.”

“It's very similar to the issue of slavery. Right? There were a million reasons that people had not to make slavery illegal … And eventually it was made illegal, and it was fine. Doesn't mean that there were complications with that … But let's not wait ‘till we've sorted everything out,” he concluded. 

Meanwhile, states with Democratic-controlled governorships and state legislatures are moving quickly to codify protections for IVF, which has become the newest battleground of the post-Roe v. Wade moment. Today, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed into law new protections for those using surrogacy and IVF for family planning.