Latinos for Trump and the Multi-Racial Right with Daniel Martinez HoSang
Since his inauguration just over a week ago, President Donald Trump has signed 8 executive orders and taken over 21 actions linked to immigration, evoking the notion of an “invasion” to justify a harsh military approach and promising “mass deportations”. Three days ago, his administration’s decision to use military airplanes to deport migrants – often handcuffed and treated like criminals – set off a diplomatic crisis with Colombia. Our president Gustavo Petro refused to accept two military flights with deported Colombians; Trump’s response was a disproportionate and vindictive weaponization of tariffs, which he threatened to raise 50%, and a repeal of all government official visas. Even though Petro ultimately accepted the fights, the fallout continues. Colombia was made an example of, to send the message that anyone that responds to Trump with anything other than complete submission – both inside and outside the US - will be aggressively punished. And yet in perhaps the most racist and overtly imperialist expression of the Republican party, Trump won with a significant increase of the Latino vote. The inspiration for this episode of Sur-Urbano was the shift towards the right in predominantly latino cities in the US. Miami-Dade county, which is 70% latino, swung republican for the first time since 1988. In counties all over the US-Mexico border - which tend to be majority or have large latino populations - the Trump vote grew by 10 to 25%, even in cases where Trump lost. This even happened in blue states and cities; in California, the largely latino Central Valley supported trump, and even in Queens and the Bronx in New York, the Trump vote increased by around 20%. It is more important than ever to understand the unique power of the multi-racial right. And for this, I joined forces with cohost and political theorist Will Callinson to interview Prof. Daniel HoSang, professor of American studies at Yale University. Daniel is an interdisciplinary scholar of racial formation and racism in politics, and coeditor of a forthcoming book titled The Politics of the Multiracial Right. I learned so much from this conversation, and am convinced that any hope of resistance must stem from a reckoning within the left, which includes better understanding of what drives voters – particularly the working class and of color – to the right. Will Callison (williamcallison.bsky.social) is a political theorist and a Lecturer in Social Studies at Harvard University.