Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) speaks following the inauguration of President Donald Trump during an event at Capital One Arena on January 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. | Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty
In today’s episode of ‘Not Like Us’ Is An Understatement, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) has been catching a lot of heat recently for referring to President Donald Trump as “daddy,” which, notably, other Republicans and MAGA conservatives have done since voters decided to let Trump get his rotten apricot-tinted butt shavings all over the Oval Office furniture again.
“When Americans see deportations or repatriations happen, they’re gonna be like, ‘Thank you,’” Donalds said during an appearance on Fox News last Sunday. “When they see the border closed, they’re gonna say, ‘This is what I voted for.’ When they see peace starting to break out again around the world, they’re gonna be like, ‘This is the stability that we were asking for.’”
“Daddy’s back,” he added.
Now, before we get back to Donalds behaving as if he has already given Trump permission to claim him on his taxes even though he only comes around every other Thanksgiving, the congressman has demonstrated one of my biggest frustrations regarding Black conservatives:
They talk white.
Much like white conservatives, when Donalds speaks on how “Americans” will feel about their collective “daddy,” he’s really just talking about white people.
Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly a number of Black Americans who have let conservatives convince them that Hispanic immigrants are their shared enemy because they’re taking all of the “Black jobs,” but the call for mass deportation — from “build that wall” to “they’re eating that cats and dogs” — has been a white nationalist call to action for more than the last two decades. Donalds is preaching to the same Caucasian choir he let pat him on the head like he was Republicans’ pet “Black friend” in 2023.
It’s almost like they’re all his “daddy.”
Again, to be fair, Donalds is not the only child left behind who has referred to Trump as their patriarch.
On Sunday, Rep. Lauren Boebert took to X to post a photo of TIME Magazine’s cover of Trump, captioning her post: “Daddy’s home!”
Turning Point USA cofounder Charlie Kirk also posted a photo of Trump on X with the caption “Dad is home.”
But it seems former Fox News host Tucker Carlson may be the one to first refer to Trump as a father figure.
In October, Carlson predicted Trump would win the election and “spank” America like a misbehaving child.
“When Dad gets home, you know what he says? ‘You’ve been a bad girl,’” Carlson said at the time. “‘You’ve been a bad little girl and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now.’”
Ahh yes, Tucker Carlson, the man who complained that a cartoon mascot for M&Ms wasn’t “sexy” enough, has also shared with us his fantasy of America as a young school girl getting spanked by “daddy.”
So, Donalds isn’t the only one out here sounding like he wants to sit in Trump’s lap and let the president bounce him off his knee, but if he were of the aforementioned “like us” variety, he would know that being a grown Black man who refers to an old white man who already has a raging white savior complex as “daddy” is a sure way to have Black people pretending not to see him at any of the many cookouts he’d likely never be invited to.
Also — it’s just weird, man.
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