This is Trump’s True Crimes – Episode 79: Census Manipulation Attempt.
The Census is one of the oldest institutions in American democracy. Every ten years, it counts the people, and that count determines how political power and federal funding are distributed. It’s meant to be neutral, accurate, and fair. But Donald Trump saw it as something to weaponize.
Trump’s administration made an unprecedented push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. The official excuse was enforcing the Voting Rights Act. But leaked documents later revealed the real plan: to suppress immigrant participation, shift political representation away from diverse urban areas, and give Republicans a long-term advantage in redistricting.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross pushed the change, despite the Census Bureau’s own experts warning it would reduce response rates and skew results. When the Supreme Court finally weighed in, Chief Justice John Roberts called the administration’s explanation “contrived.” The Court blocked the question—but the effort didn’t stop there.
Behind the scenes, Trump’s team still tried to exclude undocumented immigrants from the Census count altogether. That move violated centuries of constitutional precedent. The Constitution is clear: the Census counts all “persons,” not just citizens. But Trump insisted on bending the rules.
Why? Because redrawing congressional districts based only on citizens would strip representation from immigrant-heavy states and hand more seats to whiter, more conservative regions. It was a blatant attempt to rig the political map for a generation.
Civil rights groups, states, and immigrant advocates fought back. Multiple courts struck down Trump’s attempts. In the end, the Census counted everyone. But the damage was done. Fear and confusion spread through immigrant communities, and millions of people hesitated to participate. That chilling effect was part of the strategy all along.
The Census manipulation attempt showed how far Trump was willing to go to twist the machinery of democracy in his favor. It wasn’t just about numbers on a form—it was about who counts in America, and who gets erased.
This is Trump’s True Crimes – Episode 79: Census Manipulation Attempt.
And next, we turn to Trump’s True Crimes – Episode 80: USPS Sabotage Before 2020 Election—how Trump and his allies tried to cripple the Postal Service to block mail-in voting and tilt an election.