Everything that’s wrong with the Trump administration summed up in 12 simple words
US President Donald Trump makes a statement in the briefing room at the White House. (Alex Wong/Getty)
A Twitter user has summed up everything that is wrong with the priorities of the Donald Trump administration in just 12 words.
On Friday (June 12), the fourth anniversary of the Pulse massacre, the Trump administration cruelly erased precious healthcare protections for trans patients.
Less than two weeks into Pride Month the Department of Health and Human Services finalised a rule that effectively means gender identity is no longer an avenue for sex dissemination in healthcare.
It’s part of a slew of policy changes across education, housing and employment to narrow the legal definition of discrimination to not include trans folk.
While the Trump administration is determined to restrict the lives of trans people with increasingly hateful fervour, there is another group that has managed to escape the White House’s malevolence: the Ku Klux Klan.
As James Ray wrote on Twitter: “Why is our government more afraid of Transgender people than the KKK?”
The tweet now has more than 170,000 likes and almost 50,000 replies.
Why is our government more afraid of Transgender people than the KKK
— James Ray (@MakeItRayn_) June 13, 2020
The Trump administration does not classify the KKK as a terrorist organisation.
Harry Rodgers, a self-described Ku Klux Klan leader, drove his truck into a group of Black Lives Matter protesters in Virginia on Sunday, June 7. He is facing charges of assault and battery, and a hate crime investigation is underway.
The incident has renewed calls for the group to be banned, and one change.org petition has been signed almost 1.5 million times.
Trump has disavowed the Ku Klux Klan over the years, though he famously said “there were very fine people on both sides” when discussing a neo-Nazi rally that saw Klansmen and other white supremacists clash with anti-racists, before a car drove into a crowd of counter-protesters.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Centre: “The Ku Klux Klan with its long history of violence, is the oldest and most infamous of American hate groups.
“Although Black Americans have typically been the Klan’s primary target, it also has attacked Jews, immigrants, members of the LGBTQ community and, until recently, Catholics.”
Despite this, the KKK is not considered a terrorist group in the US, as the country has no domestic terrorism statute. The US federal government only designates foreign groups, for example Al Qaeda and ISIS, as terrorist organisations.
This means that members of the white supremacist, homophobic hate group cannot be charged with terrorism offences, only hate crimes.
Former US Attorney and director of the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security told Time in 2019: “White supremacy is a greater threat than international terrorism right now. We are being eaten from within.
“I’d have to pursue a white supremacist with hate crimes, unless he interfaced with Al Qaeda. Does that make any sense?”
