In case you missed it, an op-ed written by American Bridge 21st Century’s Presidential Communications Director, Brandon Weathersby, was published in NewsOne during the final week of Black History Month, laying out the concrete, documented ways the Trump administration’s policies have narrowed economic opportunity and erased historical truth for Black Americans – and what that means for the country as a whole.
“The way he treats Black America is not an exception. It is a window into how he has failed the country as a whole by stifling opportunity, fueling division, and abandoning any real commitment to shared prosperity,” wrote Weathersby. Read the full article on Newsone.com.
Key points on the issues
On the economy:
- Under Trump’s first year, Black unemployment rose to pandemic-era levels, driven by mass federal layoffs that landed hardest on Black workers, who have long relied on public service as a stable path to the middle class when private sector discrimination closed other doors.
- And in the private sector, Trump’s pressure campaign to force corporate retreat from diversity, equity, and inclusion programs helped push 300,000 Black women out of the workforce. The result has been a collapse of career ladders that supported entire families and communities – losses that ripple through households already strained by high housing and food costs.
On Black entrepreneurship:
- Trump attempted to eliminate the Minority Business Development Agency through an executive order, and even after the courts blocked that effort, its operations have never fully recovered. The message to Black business owners was unmistakable: their progress was never a priority for this administration.
On education:
- The spending bill signed into law last summer by the president caps federal student loan borrowing for graduate, law, and medical students. It also restricts how much parents can borrow to help cover student tuition, reduces the maximum Pell Grant award, and limits aid for part-time students. This leaves Black students facing a system that shuts more doors than it opens and makes higher education more inaccessible than it has been in decades.
On history and identity:
- Trump’s signature executive order framed any discussion of equity as a threat and challenged schools to choose between honest teaching and their federal funding. In the months that followed, teachers reported fear and confusion about teaching routine lessons on Martin Luther King Jr., Ruby Bridges, and the Civil Rights Movement.
- Trump’s whitewashing of history didn’t stop at the classroom door. His administration ordered reviews that led to the removal of exhibits acknowledging the role of slavery in the lives of the founders and the service of Black soldiers in World War II. He has pursued the restoration of Confederate names of military bases with the zeal of a man intent on rewriting the nation’s memory.
Read the full article on Newsone.com.
Published: Feb 26, 2026 | Last Modified: Mar 13, 2026