Gary Franks

President Donald Trump is definitely color blind, as he can only see white, and as far as gender, it is men in all key roles. Maybe it has something to do with how Trump amassed large vote totals. White men carried Trump into the White House.

Now, he’s still defending an Anti-Weaponization Fund of $1.776 billion that would have had nearly all, if not all, of their proposed reparations payout going to “white men.” (It should be noted that 400 years of Black slavery to get zero dollars in reparations, while a few hours of questionable and many illegal acts — i.e., attacking police officers — could have shared nearly $2 billion in reparations. Oh well).

Let us review the record of Trump 2.0 on race and gender.

Women and Black Americans have never fared well in Trump’s political orbit. The number of Black Republicans in the House of Representatives will go from the best ever to the worst since when I was the lone Black Republican in Congress — thanks, at least in part, to Trump. Leading Republican women voices in Congress will also be gone in January, thanks at least partially to Trump.

The women’s departures are essentially over the release of the Epstein files or the simple absence of support from Trump when needed. The most pronounced example was with Rep. Elise Stefanik. She was the Republican Party’s highest-ranking woman in the House of Representatives. She lost an opportunity to serve in the Trump Cabinet and then lost Trump’s support when seeking the GOP nomination for Governor of New York.

Recently the War Secretary found all qualified Black Americans and women eligible for a promotion to the rank of General “not fit” to receive the promotion. Yet, all the white men eligible for a promotion to the rank of General were promoted.

This is the War Secretary (Pete Hegseth) that denied Black Engineers the opportunity to interview and compete for jobs in the Defense Department and followed by doubling down on his attack to deny opportunities to Black Americans. He “strongly suggested” that corporations doing business with the Pentagon also should not even interview Black engineering prospects at the job fair.

Trump has fired or accepted the resignation of several women from key Cabinet level positions. Ironically, one can give “praise” to Trump for not firing Black people in high-level positions. That is largely due to his unwillingness to actually “hire” Black people in high-level positions, other than the “Black job” — HUD Secretary.

Leaders who, through their actions, suggest that white men have all the answers to America’s problems often look rather silly in the 21st century. There is a God. And even if you do not believe in fairness, God does. And evil and injustice ultimately never prevails over the grace of God for those who adhere to the Golden Rule.

Now the removal or disrespect for women.

Not sure about you, but I am suspect about “jobs” numbers coming out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics office. Last year, when Trump got “jobs” numbers he did not like, he “fired the messenger” (Dr. Erika McEntarfer) immediately and tried to put E.J. Antoni, a white man, in her position as commissioner. It stands to reason, or at least question, that the next person responsible for releasing jobs numbers would err on the side of Trump or do even worse in order to not suffer the same fate.

Oh, it has to be noted that just a few months ago, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid an internal investigation into multiple allegations of misconduct and her temporary replacement is a white man.

Pam Bondi, the former woman in charge of the Justice Department, was also relieved of her Attorney General position. There are multiple possible reasons here that pushed Trump to abruptly fire her. The continual debacle surrounding the Epstein files and the speed of political retribution by the Justice Department seem to be two of the leading reasons. She simply was not up to carrying out all of the Trump demands in a way that would satisfy Trump. And the acting Attorney General is a white male.

Then we have former DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard. She resigned. The acting director’s qualifications for the job have been rightfully and seriously questioned by elected officials from both parties. His first task given to him from Trump is to fire people Trump does not like. Thus, our prayers go out to Black people and women since they will disproportionately be determined to be “not a good fit” if all trends continue.

Gabbard’s “sin” was disagreeing with Trump on Iran’s ability to launch a nuclear attack on America or its allies. And the acting DNI director is a white man.

Then we have former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Yes, another woman fired by Trump. She was primarily responsible for gathering Hispanics who illegally entered our country and removing them from America. Her ICE forces used questionable, aggressive tactics. The deaths of innocent Americans, and misleading the public on the rationale for their deaths, played a role in her departure. And, you guessed it, the new Secretary of Homeland Security is a white man.

And now let’s review the white men who have high-level Cabinet positions in the Trump Administration who have been fired. That answer is zero.

If America were using “disparate treatment” to evaluate fairness toward minorities and women, Trump would easily receive a failing grade — unless, I say facetiously, white men were grading him.

But the Trump administration does not believe it is possible to have disparate treatment be a reason to frown upon the employment practices of an entity. After all, some people (women and Black Americans) are often not a good fit.

Any objective political scientists, academics, sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, statisticians, or “seventh graders” would be able to figure out that our president has serious issues with strong women leaders and Black Americans who are not former athletes.

When you do not want to use the talents of all Americans, regardless of their gender or race, your biased attitude makes you look more like Fred Flintstone than Albert Einstein.

Gary Franks served three terms as a congressman from Connecticut’s 5th District. He was the first Black conservative elected to Congress and first Black Republican elected to the House in nearly 60 years. Host: Podcast “We Speak Frankly” www.garyfranksphilanthropy.org