President Donald Trump welcomed lots of on the White Home on Thursday for a Black Historical past Month reception, the place he was joined by longtime pal Tiger Woods and a cadre of Black Republican leaders.
“We pay tribute to the generations of Black legends, champions, warriors and patriots who helped drive our nation ahead to greatness,” stated Trump to a crowd of enthusiastic Black supporters contained in the East Room. At one level throughout the occasion, the room chanted, “4 extra years!” in reference to Trump serving a 3rd time period — one thing he repeatedly hints at regardless of being constitutionally restricted to 2 phrases.
As the US seems to be to mark the 250th anniversary of its founding subsequent 12 months, Trump stated, “We’re going to stay up for honoring the contributions of numerous Black Individuals who fought to win and shield and develop American freedom from the very, very starting.”
All through his greater than 20-minutes-long remarks, during which he stopped to permit different Black leaders to talk, Trump touted his share of the Black vote within the 2024 election, and vowed to incorporate Black historic figures in a yet-to-be established statue park.
Trump was joined on stage by golf legend Tiger Woods, who wore his Presidential Medal of Freedom — which he obtained from Trump throughout his first time period in 2019 — round his neck. Different distinguished attendees included Senator Tim Scott, R-S.C., Rep. John James, D-Mich., and the newly confirmed secretary of Housing and City Improvement, Scott Turner. Alice Johnson, the Black grandmother who obtained a pardon from Trump in 2018 after serving 21 years in jail, was additionally in attendance. Trump stated he would identify Johnson as his “pardon czar” and take her suggestions on presidential pardons.
Referencing the nation’s founding in 1776, President Trump swiped on the Biden administration, accusing them of attempting to “scale back all of American historical past to a single 12 months, 1619.” The 12 months 1619 turned a distinguished 12 months of debate after the publication of Nikole Hannah Jones’ New York Instances collection, “The 1619 Venture,” which explores the central function of slavery and racism all through American historical past.
“Underneath our administration, we honor the indispensable function Black Individuals have all the time performed within the immortal reason for one other date, in 1776,” stated Trump. The president celebrated Prince Estabrook, an enslaved African American, who was the primary Black soldier to combat within the American Revolution. Trump stated Estabrook could be featured in his deliberate outside statue park, together with different Black historic figures like Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Booker T. Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson, Muhammed Ali, Billie Vacation and Aretha Franklin.
There’s an irony to President Trump’s celebration of Black Historical past Month, as some federal businesses, together with the Protection and State Departments, have opted to not observe it because of Trump’s govt order banning variety, fairness, and inclusion, or DEI, and race-conscience programming or insurance policies all through the federal authorities, together with public faculty lecture rooms. His order even calls for personal firms to do the identical, threatening to withhold federal funding.
Regardless of Trump and White Home officers repeatedly touting his anti-DEI orders — calling the observe unlawful and discriminatory — the president didn’t point out DEI or his orders throughout Thursday’s Black Historical past Month occasion. The White Home reception comes sooner or later after a coalition of civil and human rights organizations filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Trump administration over its anti-DEI orders, in addition to different orders barring equity-related grants and the popularity of transgender folks.
“The Trump administration’s assault on equal alternative will upend the American experiment of multi-racial democracy, and albeit, that’s the level,” stated Janai Nelson, director-counsel of the Authorized Protection Fund, which is representing the Nationwide City League and different plaintiffs within the case. “These orders are a blatant try to cement racial discrimination and different inequities at each degree of society, with the aim of hoarding energy and affect among the many rich and amongst an extremist minority.”
On the White Home, Trump thanked the Black supporters within the room for reelecting him, telling them, “One of many large causes I’m president at this time is due to the Black vote.”
“It is a very particular time. It’s Black Historical past Month. We’re going to make America better than ever earlier than — we’re going to do it collectively,” stated Trump. “We’re going to be preventing lengthy and onerous for Black Individuals and all Individuals.”
