Racism is rearing its ugly head as Trump dismantles all that Obama accomplished

Cartoonist R.J. Matson of Roll Call captures the turmoil over President Trump's intention to scrap DACA, the federal government program created in 2012 by Barack Obama to give temporary legal immigration status to people who were brought to the United States illegally as children.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

President Trump's assault on so-called Dreamers is seen as more evidence of his virulent racism, because most of them are Hispanic (nearly 70% are from Mexico).

This is Trump's latest attempt to dismantle all that President Barack Obama accomplished -- from health care to trade agreements to equal pay for women to the Paris climate accord and far more.

The Washington Post's Catherine Rampell says the guiding principle seems to be, "Undo everything the previous guy did," according to the Morning Brief from WNYC-FM.

Except when the "previous guy" is our first black president, Trump's motives appear to be racially inspired, continuing his demonization of Obama, whom he alleged is a Muslim who wasn't born in the United States.

The New York billionaire didn't give up that fiction until September 2016, CNN says.

It would be no surprise that Trump is practicing racial politics; it's what he did during his ultimately successful campaign -- as the national news media stood by and celebrated him as a "newcomer" and an "outsider" determined to shake up the Washington establishment.

And it's no surprise Trump continues to play the race card to his adoring supporters, who are overwhelmingly angry white men, many of them members of alt-right groups, neo-Nazi cells, the Klan and other cesspools.

What are they angry about? Eight years of chafing under a black president who tried to even the playing field for the nation's minorities.

Desperation

In a sure sign of desperation, the defense attorney for U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez's co-defendant claims the charges being heard by a federal jury are an "attack" on successful members of the Hispanic-American community (1 A in The Record).

And the Woodland Park daily's decision to put that BS story on Page 1 today is a sure sign Gannett Co. is desperate for readers.

Federal prosecutors told the jury on Wednesday Menendez was co-defendant Salomon Melgen's "personal senator."

They described a "bribery scheme involving 'a corrupt politician who sold his senate office for a life of luxury he couldn't afford, and a greedy doctor who put that politician on his payroll for when he needed the services of a United States senator'" (7A in The Record).

See: Bob Menendez is unfit to serve in U.S. Senate

Elaine D'Aurizio

Elaine D'Aurizio, who became The Record's only female news columnist in a career that spanned more than 30 years, died on Wednesday. She was 76.

Visiting hours are today from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Moore's Home for Funerals, 1591 Alps Road, Wayne. 

A death notice ran in The Record on Thursday.