Yet another one of Trump’s political nominees has been discovered to have a disturbing and problematic past. Ed Martin, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and Trump’s nominee to permanently hold the title, has allegedly made racist comments in numerous social media posts.
The Root recently reported on Kingsley Wilson, one of the president’s deputy press secretaries at the Defense Department, and her history of antisemitic and racist tweets. Now, Martin—who helped organize the “Stop the Steal” movement after Trump’s 2020 election loss—is seemingly his latest associate who has said disgusting things online.
In a March 11 story, The Guardian revealed that Martin has accused former Vice President Kamala Harris of “self-identifying” as Black right before the the 2024 presidential election. He also said she was “the DEI candidate.”
“Hillary Clinton must be kicking herself that she didn’t do it,” he stated on social media last year. Martin also wrote: “Move over Rachel Dolezal. Why Kamala Harris can never be Black,” he said linking to an NPR article about Dolezal.
The Guardian verified that Martin was a columnist for the Evening Whirl, a non-digital crime tabloid based in St. Louis, Missouri. In a column from 2010 called “What Would MLK Say?”, he used the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to push the racist stereotype that most welfare recipients are Black and brown.
In reality, most Americans who live below the poverty line are white. Martin became a columnist after he resigned as chief of staff to the Republican governor of Missouri in 2007. He’s spent years making incendiary comments, like defending the derogatory use of Barack Obama’s middle name.
Last week, Martin penned a letter instructing the dean of Georgetown’s law school to end any of the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. He insisted that his office would not hire anyone associated with a university with DEI programs.
Martin also served on the 2024 Republican national convention platform committee.