AOC claims Republicans will ‘trick’ Americans into identity politics, stoking racial divisions

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told rally attendees not to let Republicans “trick” them into thinking they “can be separated” by race or into stoking “deep divisions along race, identity and culture,” despite President Donald Trump’s recent efforts to rid identity politics from public and private spaces.

The progressive “Squad” lawmaker’s comments came at a “Fighting Oligarchy” rally Monday night in Idaho alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. It was the pair’s latest stop in a tour of appearances across the country. 

“The only chance they have to get away with such an unpopular and hurtful agenda is to stoke deep divisions along race, identity and culture to keep us fighting and distracted. It’s not going to work anymore,” AOC told rally goers. “Don’t let them trick us into thinking we are enemies. Don’t let them trick us into being weak and being into thinking we can be separated into rural and urban, black and white and Latino.”

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., blamed Republicans for stoking identity politics during a “Fighting Oligarchy” rally on Monday night. (Getty Images/Fox News)

The rally with AOC and Sanders was largely centered around criticizing “billionaire” oligarchs like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and President Donald Trump, who, as president, has been leading an anti-DEI push that is aimed at ridding identity politics from public and private spaces.

In fact, per political analyst and regular MSNBC contributor Eddie Glaude, identity politics was “at the heart” of former Vice President Kamala Harris’ election loss to Trump. 

“The only thing that was woke or representational about [Kamala Harris’] campaign was her, her body, the fact that she was a woman of color. So I think that the concern, the so-called backlash, to tending to the diversity of the nation actually proves the point,” Glaude said in an interview with NPR shortly after Republican’s November election victories. 

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Meanwhile, since being inaugurated, Trump has implemented executive actions explicitly targeting “identity politics.”

Michael Thompson stands by a pair of Trump flags as attendees line up to enter the “Fighting Oligarchy” event at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa, Idaho, on April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyle Green)

“Prior to harmful changes introduced by the Obama and Biden administrations, the United States military offered equality of opportunity to every American capable of and interested in serving their country. Yet these two administrations exploited the military in favor of identity politics—harming our national defense, undermining the non-political nature of our military, and eroding morale and recruitment,” Trump wrote in one of his first Executive Orders after being sworn in. “Due to this ‘woke’ assault, the Services together logged their lowest recruiting records since 1940 with a 41,000-troop shortfall in 2023.”

Trump has also taken steps to rid DEI from universities, the federal government and even the private sector. 

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According to Trump, it was Democrat President Joe Biden who implemented “illegal and immoral discrimination programs,” which often tied individual success to immutable factors like race, sex and ethnicity. 

“President Trump is restoring fairness and accountability in federal hiring, and terminating DEI across the federal government,” reads a March fact sheet from the White House.