'Appealing to the racist side of America': Trump voter calls out his 'cruel' policies

13 June

U.S. President Donald Trump attends the Congressional Picnic at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

President Donald Trump's heavy-handed response to largely peaceful protests in Los Angeles, California has alarmed many Americans — including some voters who supported him in 2024.

That's according to a Friday article in the New York Times, which featured quotes from several different voters across the U.S. about how they felt Trump was handling the demonstrations. The Times interviewed both supporters of both Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris for the report, who hailed from both red and blue states and gave varying opinions on the administration's response.

55 year-old Flint, Michigan Erwin McKone told the paper he voted for Trump last year specifically because he felt that he was the best candidate on immigration and border-related issues. However, the self-identified "centrist voter" said the administration's immigration agenda was needlessly "indiscriminate" and "cruel."

"The way he’s doing things is appealing to the racist side of America,” McKone told the Times. “I thought we had gotten past a lot of our bigotry and our racist tendencies.”

The swing state voter also felt that Trump deployed U.S. Marines and the California National Guard to Los Angeles "just because people want to walk the streets and question policies." And he called for a more rational solution to immigration, pointing out that many sectors of the U.S. economy rely on immigrant labor.

“We have played a role in this,” McKone said, acknowledging that he himself had hired undocumented immigrants in the past. “We’ve allowed illegals in to work in our country for years.”

On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that Trump's deployment of the California National Guard without an official request from Governor Gavin Newsom (D) to intervene was "illegal." However, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the order and said Trump can continue to maintain control of the National Guard for now while litigation plays out.

Click here to read the Times' full report (subscription required).

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