President Donald Trump has never been subtle about where he stands on voting rights, but even by his own standards, what he said recently stopped people cold. As Black voters across the South watched their political representation get dismantled in real time, a reporter caught up with Trump as he prepared to leave for a three-day trip to Beijing on May 12 and asked him to respond. What came out of his mouth in the next few seconds has civil rights groups and Democrats demanding answers. US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters upon arrival at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, on April 17, 2026. Trump is in Phoenix to address a Turning Point USA event. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images) “Well, I think it’s been a wonderful process,” Trump said. Trump went on to reframe redistricting as “cheating” when Democrats are responsible and “winning” when Republicans do the same. “The Democrats, or as I call them, the Dumb-ocrats, because they are dumb in so many ways, they’ve redistricted for years, and now we took our shot, and it looks like we’re going to pick up a lot of seats, and that’s a good thing. We want voters to have their choice. We want fair voting. We want fair elections. The Democrats have been cheating on elections for many years, and all we’re doing is winning,” Trump said. A Supreme Court decision on April 29 gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a key protection for Black voters, sparking a fierce round of new redistricting in several Southern states, at least one of which already had begun early voting in primaries. The Supreme Court decision struck down Louisiana’s map, which had added a second majority-Black congressional district, labeling it an “unconstitutional gerrymander” — significantly weakening a VRA that already had been undercut by a 2013 Supreme Court ruling undermining Section 5 of the 1965 law. Now eight states, from California to North Carolina, have rushed to redraw their maps ahead of the midterms, and the Republicans currently have a slight advantage, though legal challenges remain in some states. Several more GOP-controlled states are expected to move quickly on redistricting, but Democrats have their own game plan. Voting rights group Fair Fight Action has identified 10 to 22 Congressional seats that could be redrawn for the party before the 2028 elections to offset Republican gains.  Tensions between the parties appeared to reach a boiling point during a tumultuous May 8 hearing in the Louisiana State Capitol about redistricting. After the state map was declared “unconstitutional,” Gov. Jeff Landry delayed the House primary elections — some 42,000 early votes already had been cast — to redraw it, and during a heated debate, State Sen. Jay Morris yelled at a crowd of mostly African-American Democrats to “shut up!” Democratic Party executive director Dadrius Lanus, who is Black, claimed that Morris called him “boy” at the hearing, but the senator denied it, and a video of the exchange backed him up. It was one of many verbal clashes and moments of pure outrage during the hearing between voting rights advocates and state Republicans. On May 13, the Louisiana Senate committee voted 4-3 along party lines to advance a new map that eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black districts — and the battle continues. ‘Shut Up!’: Trump Got Asked About Black Voters Losing Representation and What He Said Back Was So Unguarded It Felt Like a Confession and the Statehouses Proved Every Word of It True ...read more read less