Congressman Hakeem Jeffries Condemns Confederate-wanna-be Trump

Trump--the ghost of Jefferson Davis? Photo: Gage Skidmore--Flickr 

U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a member of House Democratic leadership and the Congressional Black Caucus, blasted Trump for continuing to play footsie with the alt right and Jim Crow crowd. While mentioning the funeral of former First Lady Barbara Bush, which Trump declined to attend, he referred to his elitist hideaway, Mar-A-Lago, as the “Southern White House.” 

In addition to the potentially illegal nature of exploiting the office of the presidency to run infomercials for his personal businesses, Trump’s use of the dog-whistle term “Southern White House” is offensive to many in America. The residence of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis who possessed enslaved-Africans was known as the “Southern White House” during the Civil War.

Rep. Jeffries said, in part: "The White House doesn’t belong to the ghosts of the confederacy. The White House doesn’t belong to Vladimir Putin or his indigenous collaborators. The White House doesn’t belong to a privately-owned real estate cartel to be used and abused as a prop for an infomercial. We are a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The White House belongs to the American people.”