A week after his government revoked an Obama-era housing rule aimed at combating racial segregation, President Donald Trump boasted about the reversal in a series of tweets and comments, sparking racist fears in an attempt to woo Conservative suburban white voters months after the election. .
In a “tele-meeting” with supporters on Thursday night, Trump continued to paint a terrible image of the United States for his followers if his opponent is chosen.
But polls show that suburban voters currently disapprove of the president’s work generally, and even more so of his handling of race relations.
Trump on the call continued and claimed that suburban property values would drop if Democrats build low-income housing in their neighborhoods, referring to the Obama-era rule.
“I finished it two days ago. Sign the bill. Sign the article, the rule,” Trump said. “And it was a bad rule and it was causing a tremendous drop in house prices and an increase in crime. I finished it. Now we don’t win the elections, that’s going to be restored.”
Trump also told a crowd in Midland, Texas on Wednesday that the Obama-era rule, which sought to lessen the impact of decades of racial segregation on America’s neighborhoods, has been “hell for the suburbs” and he told the audience to “enjoy your life.” ”
“They know the suburbs, people fight their whole lives to enter the suburbs and have a beautiful house,” Trump said Wednesday in Midland, Texas. “There will be no more low-income housing forced into the suburbs.”
According to numerous housing reports, black, Native American, and Hispanic households are more likely than white households to be low-income tenants.
Trump said the Obama-era rule, which sought to lessen the impact of decades of racial segregation on America’s neighborhoods, has been “hell for the suburbs” and told the audience to “enjoy your life.”
Wednesday’s comments echoed tweets earlier in the day, when Trump claimed that people who “live their suburban lifestyle dream” will not have to “bother” financially or with crime by having “homes for low income built in your neighborhood. “
His attempt to present it as a blessing to voters has his critics arguing that he is dismantling civil rights for political advantage. Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Wrote on Twitter: “Oh my gosh. I mean, it’s not even a dog whistle anymore. Our president is now a proud vocal segregationist.”
As he did in a previous “tele-meeting” with Iowans, Trump used former President Barack Obama and Senator Cory Booker, DN.J., in their comments Thursday night.
“They want to abolish the suburbs by empowering far-left bureaucrats to eliminate single-family zoning. And that’s a big question, this has been going on for a long time. Obama made it much stronger. Now I hear that Cory Booker is going to be in charge, and they basically want to build low-income housing in the suburbs.
It all follows a language pattern that the President has been using for weeks as he ramps up attacks on former Vice President Joe Biden.
Trump is relying on suburban voters he won in 2016, which is evident by his repeated false and fear-invoking claims that Democrats want to “abolish” the suburbs, but his divisive rhetoric may not work this time.
A recent ABC News / Washington Post poll showed the president followed Biden in those neighborhoods by 9%, the highest margin in suburbs that polls recorded since the 1980s, when Republicans were winning there by double digits.
And a June New York Times / Siena College poll found that 38% of voters in the suburbs approve of Trump’s job performance compared to 59% who disapprove. The demographic clue disapproved of Trump’s handling of the recent protests and race relations by an even wider margin, according to the Times.
Last Thursday, the Trump administration officially dismantled the 2015 Affirmatively Promote Fair Housing, or AFFH, rule, which required local governments to identify and address patterns of racial segregation prohibited under the Housing Equity Act of 1968. The rule linked federal funding to efforts to bridge inequalities
Trump’s attacks on AFFH, which overwhelmingly helped low-income and minority households, also come amid housing uncertainty for tenants due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The decision is likely to have little immediate practical impact because the agency has not applied the rules since 2018. Instead, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s plan appears focused on policy.
Housing Secretary Ben Carson said he was replacing the rule with a plan that more freely defines the fair housing standard as access to a safe and affordable residence. He called the current rule “a ruse for social engineering under the pretext of desegregation.”
But critics say terminating it will allow for more discrimination and harm minority households.
They point to numerous studies that have revealed a long tradition of policies that have kept Black, Native American, and Hispanic households out of the white suburbs, along with other forms of housing discrimination they face.
“Vil, despicable, racist,” Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, tweeted, in response to Trump on Wednesday.
The NLIHC is one of 14 anti-racism and fair housing groups that issued a joint statement last week condemning the actions of the Trump administration.
“Secretary Carson has worked to undermine fair housing since the day he entered the HUD building, so this action is not surprising. But it is appalling that Trump uses a critical fair housing tool to harass the race throughout the year. electoral, particularly during a time of calculating racial injustices, “Yentel said.
Lisa Rice, president and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance, told NBC News in January when Carson issued a proposal to essentially remove the rule, “What HUD has released is not a rule to affirmatively promote fair housing. ”
“This significantly weakens fair housing compliance, strengthens segregated housing patterns, and continues the status quo in which some communities are strengthened by taxpayer-supported programs and services, while other neighborhoods are deprived of opportunities.” Rice said.
Even major entities, such as the Bank of America, and political taxpayers, such as the National Association of Real Estate Agents, had urged the Trump administration against the measure. The National Association of Real Estate Agents argued that “now is not the time” to change a policy that could hinder progress against systemic racism.
Many say that terminating the rule also ignores the financial reality of millions of Americans who have already been left behind.
Recent data shows that no state has an adequate supply of affordable rental housing for low-income tenants.
A report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition found that for every 100 extremely low-income tenant homes, there are only 36 affordable homes available.
In some states, like Nevada, the situation is even more dire, with only 18 homes available for 100 homes.
Proponents argue that one of the most shocking solutions to problems related to homelessness, which Trump has also criticized, is to ensure more affordable and accessible housing.
Terrance Smith, Justin Gomez, Will Steakin, Anne Flaherty, Jordyn Phelps and Stephanie Ebbs of ABC News contributed to this report.
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