Trump claims Cory Booker is going to destroy the suburbs

Donald Trump baselessly claimed on Tuesday that Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) will be put “in charge” of a program to “destroy suburbia” if former Vice President Joe Biden wins the presidential election in November.

Trump’s claim, of course, is not based in reality and bears no resemblance to any proposed plan from Booker or Biden.

Trump has previously made similar claims about Booker, who is Black, invoking the racist “suburban housewife” trope to claim women “want safety & are thrilled that I ended the long running program where low income housing would invade their neighborhood.”

“Biden would reinstall it, in a bigger form, with Corey [sic] Booker in charge,” he tweeted on Aug. 12.

Trump has long sought to undo an Obama-era regulation that is designed to desegregate suburban housing.

From a Sep. 15 press availability:

DONALD TRUMP: So, with the suburban voter, we’re taking care of them. It’s safety, it’s about safety, it’s about law and order. It’s also about getting regulations where housing is forced into a suburban neighborhood and, you know that’s the American dream, and by the way minorities want that, everybody wants that, they want the American dream.

 

Because when you think of suburbia, it’s about 30%, close to 30% minority. Some people say more than that, they want their American dream, they don’t want to have it be obliterated.

 

So, we’ve ended the rule, the regulation as you know, and if Biden got in he’d put it right back except they’d double it up and they say that Cory Booker would be in charge. He’s the one that’s pushing it.

 

We’re not going to do that, we’re not going to destroy suburbia.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.