The Ghosts of American Racism: How Trump’s Presidency Rekindled Division and Authoritarianism

The flames of Charlottesville weren’t just a spark—they were a warning. As white supremacists marched with torches held high, the ghosts of America’s past rose from the ashes, drawn to the silence from the highest office in the land.

The firelight flickered, casting long shadows on faces filled with fear and fury. In the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, the past wasn’t just alive—it was defiant. Torch-wielding men, emboldened by a president’s silence, chanted “blood and soil” as if the Civil War had never ended, as if America’s old ghosts had never been laid to rest. The embers of history, once thought extinguished, were reignited. And in that moment, the flames weren’t stoked by angry mobs alone—they were fanned from the highest office in the land.

A Legacy of Authoritarianism

Donald Trump’s rise to power wasn’t an anomaly; it was a slow burn, a fire long smoldering beneath the surface of American politics. His presidency didn’t merely flirt with the racial divisions of the past—it embraced them, set them ablaze, and watched with impunity as the nation once again grappled with who belonged and who didn’t. This wasn’t a new fight. It was a fight thought to have been won, or at least buried, in the triumphs of the civil rights movement. Yet here it was again—raw, unfiltered, standing tall in the public square.

From 2016 to 2020, Trump’s presidency marked a staggering return to open racial rhetoric. His rallies, thick with chants of “build the wall,” evoked the venomous campaigns of segregationists like George Wallace. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, hate crimes spiked by 17% in 2017, with a noted increase following Charlottesville. “It was as if something dark had been unleashed,” one bystander recalled. The tension, once whispered in the shadows, now filled the streets.

Post-Racial Myth and the Revival of Open Racism

In a nation that celebrated the election of its first Black president, the return of open bigotry under Trump’s leadership was a bitter irony. The promise of a post-racial America had always been fragile, built on the illusion that progress had been achieved. Pew Research Center data from 2009 showed that 52% of Americans believed the country had made the necessary changes for racial equality. Yet Trump’s rise exposed just how tenuous that belief was. The old hatreds never died—they had merely waited.

Trump didn’t create these divisions, but he laid them bare. His birther conspiracy against Barack Obama questioned the legitimacy of the country’s first Black president, reviving a long American tradition of racial animus disguised as political discourse. The irony was stark: in a nation that prided itself on progress, Trump’s rise marked a return to the very forces that had sought to keep that progress in check.

Historical Ghosts in Modern Politics

The contradictions of America’s past never truly left. Figures like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, lauded for their roles in founding the nation, held hundreds of enslaved people in bondage. Jefferson, who penned the words “all men are created equal,” wrote those lines while keeping Black men, women, and children shackled in chains. Such contradictions are sewn into the very fabric of American history.

Later, Woodrow Wilson, known for his international diplomacy, left his own indelible mark of racism on the presidency. He re-segregated federal agencies and openly praised The Birth of a Nation, a film that glorified the Ku Klux Klan. Wilson’s policies, much like Trump’s rhetoric, signaled a comfort with, if not outright endorsement of, racial subjugation.

But Trump’s racism was different. It wasn’t just a product of his time—it was a deliberate tool, wielded to stoke fear, ignite resentment, and pull the country backward.

Trump, Jackson, and Authoritarianism Reborn

There’s a temptation to compare Trump to Andrew Jackson, another president known for his populist rhetoric and authoritarian impulses. But where Jackson’s crimes—most notably the forced removal of Native Americans on the Trail of Tears—were part of a 19th-century imperial project, Trump’s authoritarianism comes in an era when human rights are supposed to be universal. Jackson’s America was expanding, building an empire on the backs of those it deemed lesser. Trump’s America, by contrast, is shrinking inward, its gaze turned not to new frontiers but to the imagined enemies within.

Jackson’s brutality, though condemned today, was in line with the accepted norms of his time—conquest and expansion were the order of the day. But Trump’s racist and authoritarian impulses, far from being relics of an older world, represent a dangerous return to the past in an era when those impulses should have been left behind.

The Domestic Enemy: Trump’s 2024 Agenda

By the time Trump launched his 2024 campaign, his rhetoric had evolved into something even more sinister. His proposed mass deportations weren’t just an extension of his earlier policies—they were an attack on entire communities, a message that millions of people did not belong in “his” America. Families living in sanctuary cities, like Maria’s, lived in constant fear, not just of ICE raids but of a president who had made them public enemy number one.

At the same time, his Project 2025 targeted LGBTQ+ communities, seeking to strip away hard-won protections. His vision for America was one in which entire populations—immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, political dissidents—were painted as threats to national security. In a chilling interview with Fox News, Trump warned of “enemies from within,” comparing Democratic politicians to foreign adversaries like Russia and China, amplifying the authoritarian playbook of turning political dissent into treachery.

A Dangerous Return to Authoritarianism

The ghosts of America’s past aren’t just watching—they’re waiting. They’ve seen this country stumble before, and they know how fragile progress can be. Trump’s presidency wasn’t just a return to authoritarianism—it was a stark reminder of what’s at stake when the old ghosts of division are allowed to rise again. His demonization of immigrants, his attacks on civil rights, and his open embrace of white supremacy signaled a dangerous erosion of the very values that are supposed to define modern America.

Where Jackson’s racism was a product of his time, Trump’s racism is a choice—a deliberate strategy to divide, to stoke fear, and to pull the nation backward. His presidency serves as a reminder that progress is never guaranteed, that the fight for equality and justice is never truly over. The question isn’t whether we can lay these ghosts to rest—it’s whether we have the courage to confront them before they consume us once again.