# What's up with Trump and Native Americans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [July 28, 2025, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-trump-and-native-americans/1021429 "2025-07-28T15:16:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-trump-and-native-americans/1021429/41 "2025-07-30T09:42:00Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > But can you name one president that actively tried to help the Native American situation? Nixon? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-trump-and-native-americans/1021429/42 "2025-07-30T15:05:46Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > TBH, I’m having trouble thinking of any President that didn’t hate Native Americans. in action if not in words. Trump just seems more vocal about it … the new Andrew Jackson. I’m reminded of Clair Huffaker’s 1967 novel _Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian_ (filmed as the movie **Flap** ). He has an interesting exchange between two characters (both contemporary Native Americans). It goes something like: A: Every U.S. President has screwed over the Indians B: Not Lincoln! A: Yup. B: Not _Kennedy!_ A: Yup. In fact, they both stuck it to the same tribe. (gives details of said stickings) I wouldn’t say that every U.S. President hated the Indians, or that all of them always did things that hurt them. Or that many of them didn’t do some good things for them. But I do suspect that you can find cases of all of them doing something that wasn’t good for the Native Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-trump-and-native-americans/1021429/43 "2025-07-30T16:35:26Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > In fact, they both stuck it to the same tribe. (gives details of said stickings) But I want to know the details so I can make my own decision if there’s a valid claim here. Some people claim they’re being discriminated against because they’re being discriminated against. But some people claim they’re being discriminated against because they feel they’re entitled to some special treatment and they’re not receiving it. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-trump-and-native-americans/1021429/44 "2025-07-30T16:48:49Z")
The Santee Sioux of Minnesota, experiencing starvation, rebelled during the Civil War. Stories of atrocities committed by them were both true and fabricated. 303 were condemned but Lincoln (whose own grandfather had been killed by Shawnee) signed only 38 death warrants While the claim that their single-drop hanging was the largest mass execution in US history is made in the current era of setting the record straight on Native American history, it’s only technically accurate: right after the Mexican War we hanged 50 Irish-American turncoats; but in three drops. (dishonorable mention for the 19 African American soldiers hanged in 1917 for rioting in the streets of Houston) ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-trump-and-native-americans/1021429/45 "2025-07-30T16:57:03Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Trump has the attention span of a chipmunk. Not when it comes to grudges. ---
**Author:** ![StringsandHammers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stringsandhammers/32/17933_2.png) [@StringsandHammers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StringsandHammers)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-trump-and-native-americans/1021429/46 "2025-07-30T17:09:54Z")
I don’t view it so much as Trump abandoning his hate for hispanics, but rather I view it as Trump diversifying his hate. Diversifying your hate is very good for casting a wider net and reaching more voters. People hate different people for different reasons and only Trump can unify all these haters into one hate filled bunch. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-trump-and-native-americans/1021429/47 "2025-07-30T17:19:36Z")
If I had to guess, I’d suspect that Native Americans stick in MAGA’s craw because they’re a reminder that everyone else are really immigrants, and this gets raised frequently to call out the hypocrisy of whites trying to get rid of everybody else. Something I’ve also never really seen treated directly is that MAGA is desperately that anyone except for working-class whites can ever be more virtuous, intelligent, or admired more than them, so they have to tear it all down. Any achievement that’s more admired or respected, has to go, so that MAGA looks respectable in comparison. That’s why they’re tearing down science, vaccines, NASA, libraries, universities, private institutions, Native Americans, erasing Black American achievements from history, international alliances, UNESCO, USAID, the USPS, social security, education. All they’re ever going to achieve is a vulgar accumulation of money, properly, and power. And of course whiteness. Anything more noble or respectable than that must be destroyed. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-trump-and-native-americans/1021429/48 "2025-07-30T17:32:09Z")
Another possibility: Trump is feeling heat from farmers on tariffs. Some farmers and ranchers have always been resentful of Native Americans, especially so due to the rise in casinos. I suspect it’s got to drive Trump insane that non-white people are not only doing casinos more successfully than him, but they’re not paying federal income taxes either. Nothing drives him crazier than the ideas are getting some kind of undeserved cheat-code that whites can’t have. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-trump-and-native-americans/1021429/49 "2025-07-30T17:32:32Z")
> [@Zoobi](#): > > And to them darker skin indicates inferiority. I wonder who’s next? Answer from _Blazing Saddles_: ‘They darker than us! Woof!’ ---
**Author:** ![Frilly\_Heck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/90ced4/32.png) [@Frilly\_Heck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frilly_Heck)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-trump-and-native-americans/1021429/50 "2025-08-08T20:23:56Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > But I want to know the details so I can make my own decision if there’s a valid claim here. > > Some people claim they’re being discriminated against because they’re being discriminated against. But some people claim they’re being discriminated against because they feel they’re entitled to some special treatment and they’re not receiving it. How do you plan to evaluate the validity? What’s in your personal toolbox for that? I’ve seen Native American folks experience discrimination where I live, so I would start by assuming that type of claim is valid, unless there are some strong reasons to be skeptical. I wouldn’t expect that to convince anyone else, though, because it’s anecdotal. I do remember when this happened: [https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-nation/conservative-media-attack-native-american-blessing-az-memorial-service](https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-nation/conservative-media-attack-native-american-blessing-az-memorial-service) . It felt like a kick in the teeth for those of us who were trying to mourn together as a community. I would speculate that the 2020 election results might play a role in current right-wing animus toward Native Americans in my state (AZ), since one of the reasons we went blue was high voter turnout on the reservations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-trump-and-native-americans/1021429.md?page=2)