Trump is trying to quietly wrest control of a top federal civil rights board. He wants to demote its Democratic chair.

[In It to Win It]

Rochelle Garza, seen here testifying at a congressional hearing in 2018, was appointed the chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission by Joe Biden. Donald Trump wants to replace her. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP


Donald Trump is trying to use a historic federal civil rights commission to advance his agenda on issues like alleged non-citizen voting, antisemitism on college campuses and transgender women in sports.

It would be a dramatic shift for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which was created nearly 70 years ago to investigate discrimination and guide the development and enforcement of the nation’s civil rights laws. Its work was instrumental to the formation of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

To wrest control of the eight-member bipartisan commission, Trump is trying to replace its chair, a Democrat, with a hand-picked Republican: an employment lawyer and conservative commentator named Peter Kirsanow. Kirsanow is an outspoken critic of affirmative action and so-called DEI measures, and he has championed a range of other conservative culture war issues.

In March, commission officials received a two-sentence email saying the White House was “de-designating” the current chair, Rochelle Garza, from her post, and elevating Kirsanow instead.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/11/trump-civil-rights-commission-00286049

[Irish_Dem]

1. Nothing is safe from Trump.