Hide yo kids, hide yo, wife! Trump cautioned suburban housewives that their neighborhoods could soon be invaded unless of course, they vote for him this November. The President tweeted Wednesday that he will be the candidate to protect “suburban housewives” from low-income housing that could “invade” their neighborhoods.
“The ‘suburban housewife’ will be voting for me,” Trump wrote in a Wednesday tweet. “They want safety & are thrilled that I ended the long-running program where low-income housing would invade their neighborhood. Biden would reinstall it, in a bigger form, with Corey Booker in charge!”
When asked to elaborate about the would-be “invasion,” Trump said, “They’re going to be opening up areas of your neighborhood, which they’re are doing, and now they’re going to do – they wanted to expand it. And they will expand it.”
“For any reason,” he continued, “They’re going to, in my opinion, destroy suburbia.”
In a New York Times article last month, critics said Trump was making a play for the white suburban vote, as his polling numbers continue to decrease amid his decision to eliminate an Obama era program intended to eliminate racial housing disparities in the suburbs. According to NPR, while American suburbs are majority white, about two-thirds, data shows they’re becoming increasingly diverse.
The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Shaun Donovan, called Trump’s motives racist. “Trump’s tweet is racist and wrong,” Donovan said of the Celebrity-in-Chief’s June 30th tweet that read, “At the request of many great Americans who live in the Suburbs, and others, I am studying the AFFH housing regulation that is having a devastating impact on these once-thriving Suburban areas. Corrupt Joe Biden wants to make them MUCH WORSE. Not fair to homeowners, I may END!”
Shamus Roller, executive director of the National Housing Law Project, also criticized Trump in a statement. “The President’s attacks on the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule are deeply racist,” he said last month when the administration announced the rule’s end. “The AFFH rule was functionally eliminated in 2017, so the administration’s focus on it now is clearly a political stunt to stoke racial animus before the election. To say that a rule that requires cities to analyze segregation would ‘destroy the suburbs’ is as close as you can get to an endorsement of racial segregation without actually saying the words.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced last month that it would terminate the 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, part of the 1968 Fair Housing Act. The regulation was put in place to ensure that communities receiving HUD dollars were free from illegal discrimination. Despite Trump’s aggressive campaign effort to win suburban favor, a June poll from NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist showed 66% of suburban women disapproved of the President’s job performance.
