Donald Trump Supporter Sat Next To My 12-Year-Old Black Son On A Plane. I Couldn’t Believe What She Said
My son is growing up in a world that feels more dangerous because of the choices made by the president this woman supported.
Around Thanksgiving, airports are always crowded, flights are packed, and travel is frustrating. My husband and I decided to visit my family in Kansas, even knowing it would be a headache.
My husband, who travels often for work, dreaded the noise and chaos of a holiday flight. Our 12-year-old son just wanted to know if the plane would have a screen so he could watch a movie.
I, being a sentimental holiday person, focused on the bigger picture: all these people were traveling because they loved someone. Even the ones slowing down the security line or struggling at the kiosk were doing it out of care for their families.
What I didn’t expect was that my son would spend the flight sitting next to someone who voted for Donald Trump.
Our family is multiracial, and my son is a young Black boy who has always been curious about history and politics. As a child, he memorized all the U.S. presidents and loved “Hamilton.” Now, he’s learning more about how the world really works, and often, it disappoints him. Despite being a typical tween who sometimes rolls his eyes at me, he’s polite and friendly with others. So when a middle-aged woman from Kansas started talking to him on the plane, he chatted with her.
After the flight, he told me quietly, “Mom, that woman voted for Trump.”
She had told him she wasn’t a Republican, just that she hated Hillary Clinton. She even said her favorite president was Reagan. She was kind to him, even complimented me for raising such a “great young man.
But I couldn’t stop thinking: how could she vote for someone whose policies hurt people like my son? How could she praise my child while supporting a president who disrespects Black people, dismisses climate change, and makes life harder for families with gay parents?
My son noticed something too. “She was nice, but she acted like politics doesn’t really affect people’s lives,” he said. And that’s the heart of the problem — thinking politics is just a game is a privilege. For my son, politics isn’t distant; it’s about his safety, his future, his generation’s chance to thrive.
Years later, he’s now 18 and in college. He voted for the first time in 2024. He’s grown more realistic and less trusting, not just because of age, but because of the political climate he’s grown up in. The chatty, wide-eyed boy is now careful with strangers, more guarded — a change I can’t help but link to the way our country has been shaped in recent years.
We’ll travel again. He may sit next to another Trump voter. But now, instead of feeling confused or upset, he’ll likely just move on. He has his own life, his own future, and his own vote to cast.
