MORE THAN A HINT OF RACISM
The Trump administration appears to operate on the theory that all Blacks in high positions are “diversity hires” and its agenda is to rid the federal government of all traces of “diversity, equity and inclusion”. The result is that many Black administrators in the federal government have been fired and replaced by whites.
Up to August 7, two hundred days into Trump’s presidency, of 98 Senate-confirmed appointees, only 2 were Black, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner and the general counsel of the Defense Dept. (now War Dept.) Earl G. Matthews.
At the same time Trump has fired such top Black administrators as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr., the Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, Gwynne A. Wilcox a member of the National Labor Relations Board, Alvin Brown of the National Transportation Safety Board and Willie L. Phillips Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. And Trump has tried to fire Lisa D. Cook of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, although the courts have blocked him so far. Black workers, especially Black women, have been hit hard by reductions in the federal workforce overall, especially in the Department of Education, US Agency for International Development, and the IRS. A Black leader has categorized Trump’s policy as “a resegregation of the workforce and an attack on the Black middle class.”
Source: The New York Times,10/12/25