Critics pounced on President Donald Trump Monday after he complained to the New York Times that the Civil Rights Act – the landmark 1964 legislation that outlawed racial discrimination – was “unfair in certain cases” because “white people were very badly treated.”
Trump argued to the Times that the Civil Rights-era protections established in the 1960s — protections that outlawed racially discriminatory voting laws and racial segregation — led to discrimination against white Americans, including the denial of education opportunities.
“White people were very badly treated, where they did extremely well and they were not invited to go into a university, to college,” Trump told the Times, an apparent reference to affirmative action policies at higher-education institutions. “So I would say in that way, I think it was unfair in certain cases.”
The claim sparked outrage among critics online, some of whom characterized the president’s remarks as a form of “white backlash.”
“This has been the central, animating principle of American conservatism for decades,” wrote journalist Eoin Higgins, who covers cybersecurity and government tech for IT Brew, in a social media post on X Sunday night. “White backlash all the way down.”
Others, like X user “New Yorker in DC,” a political commentator and blogger who writes about U.S. politics, slammed Trump as a “racist” for his brazen remarks.
“Trump means that after the civil rights movement, white people couldn't treat Blacks and other minorities like s—,” they wrote Monday in a social media post on X. “Which made racists like him feel bad.”
And blogger Karen Pang argued Trump’s remarks came from a sense of entitlement.
“Angry self-entitled white man baby at it again,” they wrote Monday in a social media post on X.this has been the central, animating principle of American conservatism for decades
white backlash all the way down https://t.co/qNzhIhxRxN
— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) January 12, 2026