Donald Trump on Wednesday said Americans “living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream” will no longer be “bothered” by low-income housing in their communities, an explicit effort to stoke racial fears among affluent, white voters who are abandoning the Republican party under his leadership.
The remark is part of a pattern from the US president as he tries to rebuild his standing in the suburbs, which has cratered amid his administration’s failure to contain the coronavirus pandemic, the ensuing economic crisis, as well as the president’s aggressive response to the nationwide protests against systemic racism, which polls suggest most Americans support.
“I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood….,” Trump tweeted, as he traveled to Texas on Wednesday. “Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!”
The tweet references the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, an Obama-era program designed to reduce racial segregation in American suburbs. Last week, the administration announced it would rescind the program, agreeing with conservative critics that the fair-housing policy amounted to federal overreach into local communities.
In a statement, Biden slammed Trump’s travel to Texas, which is grappling with one of the country’s worst outbreaks as Hurricane Hanna batters the south-east corner of the state. “Now isn’t the time for politicking or photo ops,” Biden said. “Texans need a president with the experience and vision to fight for families no matter how many catastrophes reach our shores.”
But there are signs Trump’s nostalgia for a bygone era isn’t resonating with Americans who increasingly say they are alarmed by racial discrimination. These shifts are changing the political landscape of once-conservative states like Texas. In 2018, voters in the suburbs of Houston, San Antonio and Austin helped fuel historic Democratic gains in a number of counties and districts that voted Republican just two years before.
