A Message From The Publisher
From the Perspective of Black, Brown, and Marginalized Communities
By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.
Donald Trump calls it “big” and “beautiful.” He flashes it like ILL-gotten gain at campaign rallies, the massive, multi-billion-dollar legislation packages he brags about. Infrastructure, border security, policing, tax cuts. To Trump, these bills are monuments to his greatness. To us, Black, Brown, Indigenous, poor, queer, immigrant, these bills are reminders that this nation still sees us as expendable.
You know what’s so, what’s so ugly about Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”?
Everything.
When Policy Is a Weapon
Trump’s so-called “beautiful bills” are not designed with us in mind; they’re written to erase us, to keep us on the surveillance, to criminalize us, to suck the life from us while giving more to the already rich, white, and powerful.
Take the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Trump sold it as a win for the American worker. But Black and Brown households saw scraps, while corporations and the ultra-rich got a windfall. The racial wealth gap widened. Education funding suffered. Public programs were cut. That bill was beautiful—for billionaires.
Or look at his border spending bills wrapped in the language of “security,” but soaked with the blood of cruelty. They built cages for children. They paid for more ICE raids in Latinx neighborhoods. They militarized the border and expanded private detention facilities, profiting from human suffering.
His “law and order” bills and executive actions sent more money to police departments with deadly track records in Black communities. Under Trump, “reform” meant tear gas at protests, knees on necks, tanks in our streets, and silence when our people were killed with impunity.
And his COVID relief response? A bill delayed, debated, diluted—while Black and Brown communities were dying in disproportionate numbers. Hospitals in our zip codes were overrun, and the so-called “relief” often came too little, too late. An entire island was turned into a graveyard filled with Covid victims.
When a Bill Isn’t Just a Law, but a Message
Trump’s bills are nothing but neon lights flashing telling us who belongs and who doesn’t. They codify a vision of America that is white, wealthy, and obedient sycophants. Like an inexperience excavator his pen signs more than policy, it signs people out of housing, out of health care, out of civil rights protections, and sometimes, out of life.
We know that “big” in Washington often means bloated contracts for defense, not for dignity. We know “beautiful” in his eyes means power maintained, not justice delivered.
To Black and Brown Americans, these bills feel like oceans of time yet crossed. They are but financial, physical, and psychological barriers to freedom. They restrict voting. They restrict immigration. They restrict gender expression. They restrict reproductive rights.
And every time Trump calls them beautiful, what he really means is: they did what I wanted them to do. They protected the power that built this country on stolen labor, stolen land, and stolen lives.
Our People Are the Real Builders
If Trump wants to talk about bills, we’ll talk about the unpaid bill this nation still owes to the people who built it. The bill for reparations. The bill for stolen wages. The bill for broken treaties. The bill for lives lost to racist policies, denied care, and sanctioned neglect.
More than sixty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the Lincoln Memorial and declared that America had written Black people a check that came back marked “insufficient funds.” He called it a promissory note—a guarantee that all people, including Black Americans, would inherit the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But that check bounced. And it’s still bouncing.
Today, we are still waiting at the window of justice for this nation to make good on its debts. For too many, the check still comes back stamped “no funds available.” But as Dr. King reminded us, we refuse to believe the bank of justice is bankrupt.
If Trump’s proud of his so-called big, beautiful bills, let him explain why America’s most overdue ones still sit unpaid on the table.
We don’t need big, beautiful bills designed to further divide and dehumanize. We need transformative legislation written with equity at the center. Policies that protect workers, not corporations. Schools, not prisons. Healthcare, not handcuffs. Housing, not walls.
We Are Not Fooled by Fancy Names or Flashy Signings
To Trump and those who applaud these bills: we know who you are and what you stand for. We hear the dog whistles. We recognize the racism dressed up in bureaucracy.
The beauty of a bill is not in its size, it’s in who it serves.
And if it doesn’t serve the people, all people then it’s not beautiful. It’s brutal.
