The cognitive dissonance required to be a Black member of the GOP in today’s political climate looks to me like a domestic violence victim who stays with their abuser. “People just don’t understand, they love us” they seem to be saying.

There are a number of Black Republicans, and most of them seem to have one thing in common: They’re wealthy. Their politics is defined by an almost libertarian-like stance of “I got mine, so screw everyone else.” That, of course, is to the detriment of other Black people, who largely are better served by liberal democratic policies.

That has been the case since the two parties “switched sides” during the Civil Rights era. What began as a gradual shift under FDR took a final, dynamic turn for Black voters toward the Democrats when they heard the 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater argue that the Civil Rights Act of that year would constitute federal overreach.

But there are remnants of the laissez-faire conservativism that caused Republican business owners from the party of Lincoln to switch. And they seem blissfully unaware of — or unconcerned with — the fact that their party has at its head a man who wouldn’t have rented them an apartment 50 years ago.

With the exception of North Carolina’s failed gubernatorial candidate, Mark Robinson, who once referred to himself as a Black Nazi on a pornography website, most Black Republicans seem either cognitively dissonant or very, very selfish. I’m not sure what’s wrong with that guy.

In any case, one has to imagine that Black Republicans, in return for their loyalty to a party that doesn’t actually care for anything about them except their money, might expect to be rewarded with political favors when their support helps Republicans win races. In other words, there’s no real “I got mine” inside the party for them.

Cabinet picks would have been one way for Donald Trump to show his appreciation, and they just have not been forthcoming.

Oh, there’s the standard Housing and Urban Development post that goes to a Black nominee every time. Trump has nominated Scott Turner this time around — a (rich) former NFL player. He appointed Dr. Ben Carson last time he was president. I’m convinced that Republicans want to give Black people jobs, but can only bring themselves to nominate them for this position because it contains the word “urban.”

Why do I think that? Well, because of every Republican candidate who’s ever run, no president has ever traded so much on the support they’ve gotten from Black people, who don’t normally support their party. Trump has said on numerous occasions that no president but Lincoln has done more for Black people than him, and suggested he’s actually done MORE than Lincoln.

And yet Turner is the literal sole Black person Trump has nominated. It echoes his first term, when Carson was the only Black person to work for him.

The Republicans spent so long denigrating the “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion” movement that they literally called everyone in the Biden administration who wasn’t a straight white Christian male a “DEI hire” and claimed they were otherwise unqualified outside the fact that they came from a traditionally marginalized group.

One anonymous Black lawmaker told Black Enterprise magazine, “Why is every Black person given HUD?” while another lamented that “I can’t tweet that we need more Black conservatives because the left will attack me saying it’s a DEI hire.”

I mean, that’s classic Republican projection right there — zero Democrats are going to attack Republicans for hiring more Black people.

But I can’t help but wonder if the growing outrage among the Black community about being largely snubbed by Donald Trump has something to do with the fact that he doesn’t seem to care about being seen making “DEI hires” so far — just not Black candidates. Marco Rubio is set to be the first Latino Secretary of State, Scott Bessent would be the first openly gay Treasury Secretary, Tulsi Gabbard would be the first Asian-American intelligence director, and the list doesn’t even stop there.

A Hispanic Labor secretary, an Indian-American FBI director, and more round out what looks increasingly like a DEI Cabinet — except for Black people.

It certainly lends credence to all the stories of Trump’s racist family history and personal racism. His father was among 400 KKK members arrested at a Memorial Day parade they infiltrated in 1927. Trump himself, aside from the legend of the Department of Justice’s 1974 redlining lawsuit against him, was notorious for making his casino bosses see to it there were no Black employees to be seen on the casino floor when he’d come through with his first wife.

I would advise Black politicians not to hold their breath for Trump to change.