By Cody Yarbrough, Contributing Writer
No president in the history of this country has done more for Black people than Donald J. Trump. Not Lindon B. Johnson, who signed the Civil Rights bill. Ulysses S. Grant, who crushed the KKK. Not even Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation. No, ladies and gentlemen. #45 is the only true friend that Black people have ever had in the Oval Office. And he is the only one who can make it right for us in this country. Or at least, that’s what Trump wants Black people to think.
By now, it’s no secret that Donald Trump will say anything to look good in front of voters, and that’s no different with the Black population. Ever since he fixed his mind on running for president, he’s painted himself as the ultimate white savior that African Americans can count on. It’s a complete farce, for sure.
But concerningly enough, there seems to be a considerable amount of Black people buying into it. In response, we’ve decided to take three of the most prominent pieces of false-accolades attributed to Trump in the Black community and fact-check them so that his lies and misinformation can’t sway your Black vote.
He Saved HBCUs
If you bring up the topic of Trump’s racist behavior to him or one of his supporters, the most common pushback you’ll receive will be about how he saved HBCUs by granting them millions of dollars in relief. This statement is an extreme stretch of the truth at best and an egregious example of propaganda at worst.
Trump signed a piece of legislation called the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education (FUTURE) Act. A bill that he had no part of writing, no part of securing votes for, no part of promoting, but every part of taking credit for. The FUTURE Act bill was proposed by a small team of southern Congress members to make the special funding HBCUs have received since 1986 under the HEA (Higher Education Act) permanent.
The bill was eventually passed in the House with a landslide 319 – 96 vote, without any outspoken support from Trump. Rep. Alma Adams, one of the Congress members who presented the bill, stated that “The only words the president contributed were his signature, ‘Donald J. Trump,’” Even without the FUTURE Act, HBCUs were not at risk of a nationwide collapse. There are multiple other government programs outside of the HEA that the schools could depend on to help with the cost of operations. Student assistance and resource expansion were most at risk during that vote, not the HBCUs themselves. And it was Congress that saved them, not Trump.
He Fixed Black Unemployment
Like many of Trump’s talking points, this claim has a sliver of truth that has been warped by him and his team into a parody of reality. The one-term president would have voters believe that the record lows of Black unemployment were a result of his savvy business mind, but in fact, it was the Obama administration that created the grounds for the record-breaking numbers we see today.
After seeing Black unemployment numbers spike 19% after the economic crash of 2008, the US government under Obama worked hard to combat it. They were able to stop the bleeding in 2010, and unemployment began to steadily decline that same year. By the time he left office in 2017, the country had reached pre-crash employment numbers. Better yet, there were no signs that those numbers wouldn’t keep dropping. All Trump had to do was not fumble the economic situation that had been gifted to him by his predecessor. And to his credit, he managed to avoid doing so.
Black unemployment closely followed the trend set during Obama’s first term and dropped to an all-time low in 2019 (5.9%). The pandemic saw unemployment spike again in 2020, but after the dust settled and Americans returned to normal life, Black unemployment snapped right back into its 13-year-long decline and saw a record low of 4.6% in 2023. Of course, Trump tries to take full credit for the unprecedented number of employed African Americans today. Unfortunately for him, however, numbers don’t lie as much as he does.
He Gave Us the Stimulus Checks
A common praise of Trump within the Black community is that he sent out the stimulus checks during the 2020 quarantine. And for many Black people, that’s more than enough reason for them to vote for him in 2024. Unfortunately, those who believe this have fallen for some good old-fashioned MAGA misinformation. Just like with the FUTURE Act, Trump was mostly hand-off during the formation of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act until it was time to add his signature.
Congress pushed the CARE Act through as fast as they could, with Trump doing little more than live-Tweeting the bill’s development. Some sources say the Trump administration was involved in some bipartisan negotiations when House Democrats took issue with the large amount of relief large corporations would receive. But the standoff only lasted a few days, and the accolade-oriented Head-of-State never mentioned any involvement in such talks. By the time it was all said and done, Congress had rushed out a decent plan with little to no Executive influence. However, where their work stopped, Trump’s work began.
Former President Trump and his team would work harder to exaggerate his involvement with the CARE Act than they did on the actual bill itself. When the physical checks were sent out, each one bore the President’s name as if it were a personal gesture instead of a national relief effort. Also inside the envelopes was a letter from Trump’s desk filled with words of encouragement and his signature on the bottom. And, of course, he made sure to pat himself on the back for the bill’s passing every chance he got to speak in front of a microphone. To the common person, it would be easy to think that the stimulus checks were sent from the Commander-in-Chief himself. However, in reality, it was a group project in which Trump did none of the work and took all of the credit.
These are only a few in a long list of fake achievements that Trump sold to the American public as truth. One day, there will be entire books dedicated to chronicling his lies, and the falsehoods he’s spread about Black people and other minorities will have chapters of their own. Until then, it’s up to us as voters to stay vigilant, especially when it comes to a man like Trump.
Misinformation from politicians is as old as politics itself. However, the lengths to which he has deceived American voters are something that can only be witnessed once in a lifetime. As Black people, we can’t afford to be tricked like that. And as Black voters, we have the power to tip the scales against anyone who tries to do so.
