President Donald Trump called on several Black Americans to tout his positive impact on minority well-being on Wednesday during the White House Black History Month celebration, including many who defended him from claims that Black people have languished during his tenure.
Ben Carson, one of the nation’s most prominent Black conservatives, who Trump said would soon receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, said Trump had not received enough credit for economic policies like opportunity zones that benefited Black Americans.
Arnetta Bradford said she was able to expand her coffee shop business in Hope, Arkansas, because Trump made no tax on tips the law of the land.
And Felicia Cook, a Washington, D.C., resident whose firstborn grandson was killed in 2017, defended Trump’s National Guard deployment to the District.
“I don’t want to hear nothing you got to say about that racist stuff,” she said. “I’m standing up for somebody that deserves to be stand up for. Get off the man’s back. Let him do his job. He’s doing the right thing. Back up off of him. And Grandma said it.”
Wednesday’s event marked a continued defense of a president who has made racial grievance a hallmark of his political ascent, but who has said that colorblind policies are the only ones that will raise all Americans’ fortunes. But this time, his argument was co-signed by a parade of Black faces and cheered by a roomful of minority allies.
Trump also spent some of the 45-minute appearance in the White House’s East Room talking about the “big year” he had delivered for Black Americans. “I had the support of many people in this room, and we’ve got right now the hottest country and anywhere in the world,” Trump said. “And you’re a big part of it. And you’re a big beneficiary.”
Trump has long touted the gains he made with Black voters during the 2024 election, though the overwhelming majority of Black voters did not cast their ballots for Trump and the constituency’s approval of his presidency has cooled in the past year. Trump won roughly 15 percent of the Black vote, the largest share of that constituency earned by a Republican in a quarter-century, and double his share from four years earlier. But since taking office, his approval rating among Black Americans has dropped.
Trump took aim at racial grievance shortly after assuming the presidency for a second time, signing a pair of executive orders that curtailed diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government and in education.
And Trump has used race-based attacks to demean his political opponents, including some who were historic firsts. During the 2024 presidential race, he questioned the racial identity of Vice President Kamala Harris, who was the first woman of Black and Indian ancestry to win a nationally elected office. And two weeks ago, Trump posted a video on social media that featured the first Black president, Barack Obama and his wife, as apes. The White House defended the post as “fake outrage” before it was ultimately deleted. Trump declined to apologizeover the video.
On Wednesday, Trump touted the number of Black supporters that he had both in the room and across the United States. Among them: boxers Sugar Ray Leonard and Mike Tyson, who was “so loyal, always been loyal.” He said running back and former Senate candidate Herschel Walker was a vocal ally, and fullback Jim Brown, who died in 2023, was a strong but silent one.
Trump also said he wanted to pay his “highest respect” to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died Tuesday. “I knew him well, long before becoming president, and he really was special with lots of personality, grit and street smarts.”
In a Black History Month proclamation, the White House said Trump’s political opponents had used race as a cudgel between Americans.
“For decades, the progressive movement and far-left politicians have sought to needlessly divide our citizens on the basis of race, painting a toxic and distorted and disfigured vision of our history, heritage, and heroes,” the proclamation said. “This month, however, we do not celebrate our differences.”
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