Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-WA) dropped a bombshell on CNN’s NewsNight Monday, accusing President Trump of not caring about Black people because he’s fired government employees—many of whom are Black, she claims. It’s the kind of racially charged rhetoric that’s become a Democratic staple, painting Trump as indifferent to minority communities while conveniently ignoring his administration’s tangible wins like record-low Black unemployment pre-COVID, criminal justice reform via the First Step Act, and Opportunity Zones that funneled billions into underserved urban areas. Strickland’s soundbite reeks of desperation, especially as Biden’s economy craters with inflation hitting Black families hardest and crime surging in Democrat-run cities—yet crickets from her on those fronts.
What’s clever here isn’t just the hypocrisy; it’s the subtle pivot to defending bloated federal bureaucracies as a Black jobs program. Trump targeted deep-state holdovers and inefficiencies, not skin color—firings that included plenty of white careerists too. But Strickland frames it as racial animus, a tactic straight out of the progressive playbook to demonize reforms that shrink government overreach. For the 2A community, this is a flashing red light: Democrats like her aren’t just shielding ATF bureaucrats who’ve been weaponized against law-abiding gun owners (think pistol brace crackdowns and forced serialization schemes). They’re signaling that any Trump 2.0 effort to drain the swamp—firing rogue agents pushing gun grabs—will be spun as racist to protect the administrative state that’s eroding our rights.
The implications? If Strickland’s narrative sticks, it rallies the left to double down on federal entrenchment, making 2A victories harder. Trump’s already vowed to dismantle Biden’s gun-control machine; expect smears like this to intensify, positioning pro-2A policies as anti-Black. Gun owners, especially in Black communities where self-defense is a civil right (shoutout to Colion Noir and the USCCA’s outreach), need to counter this hard—highlight how real empowerment comes from armed self-reliance, not government jobs doled out by politicians who cry racism at every cut. Stay vigilant; the midterms and beyond hinge on exposing these grifts.
