‘The View’ co-host Sunny Hostin says President Trump is a DEI hire: ‘Did not earn it’
“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin did not mince words when discussing President Donald Trump‘s inauguration and his first day in office, which included a bevy of controversial executive order signings.
Hostin, an attorney and former federal prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice, called out the “hypocrisy” of Trump being sworn in on the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., considering Trump ordered the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion offices within the federal government and reversed a previous order by President Joe Biden for the government to advance racial equity programs.
During his inaugural address on Monday, Trump vowed to make Dr. King’s “dream a reality” but also promised to end the “government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.” He added, “We will forward to a society that is colorblind and merit-based.”
“The irony of it,” said Hostin. “Martin Luther King not only wanted racial equality, he wanted economic equality, and that is something that people tend to miss.”
The television pundit added, “I want to remind people that [King] said that Black Americans deserved reparations for the injustices they faced. He argued that reparations were a form of justice, in fact, not charity.”
Hostin recited a famous quote from Dr. King: “It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.”
She continued, “In thinking about that, and Donald Trump saying things that this country would be a meritocracy. You’re talking about a man who didn’t become the president of the United States because of merit. He had no political experience whatsoever. He had no business experience. He was given everything that he has.”
In justifying his stance on DEI and race-based policies during a pre-inauguration “victory rally” on Sunday, Trump seemingly pointed to the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling that overturned affirmative action based on college admissions. “The Supreme Court ruled that the United States is allowed to go by the merit system, which is what made us great in the first place,” he said.
Though Trump appeared to suggest the affirmative action ruling applied to the private sector, such as business, the ruling was only made on race-based college admissions. Nonetheless, Hostin pointed to another affirmative action policy that has gained attention on college campuses after the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“He is a legacy hire,” said Hostin, suggesting his inherited wealth from his father and subsequent connections to the rich and powerful is what led him to the U.S. presidency.
“He is, if anything, a DEI hire,” she said. “A didn’t earn it hire.”