Birtherism Was the Beginning, but What Is Trump’s Endgame?

His persistent attacks on the freshman WOC ‘Squad’ have an all-too-familiar ring

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) pause between answering questions during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 15, 2019 in Washington, DC. Photo: Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images

Back in the early 2000s, when it became apparent that Barack Obama would do the impossible — become the first Black President of the United States — the “birther movement” began to ascend just as quickly as he did. The premise of birtherism found its foundation in the racist-laden lie that because Barack Obama’s father was from Kenya, and his mother was from Kansas, he wasn’t born in the United States and alas, couldn’t possibly be president of this great nation.

Birtherism was the 21st century equivalent of the Jim Crow era, where Black people were limited in space and movement, with Donald Trump as its vaudevillian leader. While Trump didn’t take credit for beginning birtherism, he did fancy himself the one who ended it when President Barack Obama released his long-form birth certificate for the world to see after Trump’s consistent attacks were gaining steam.

While the purpose of birtherism was to build suspicion around America’s first Black president, what Trump is doing now, however, as the current occupant of the White House is even worse. He’s graduated from conspiracy theorist to an authoritarian dictator who is inciting violence.