Trump celebrates Tiger Woods and others at Black History Month event, but doesn’t mention DEI

“We’re going to be fighting long and hard for Black Americans and all Americans,” said President Donald Trump.
President Donald Trump welcomed hundreds at the White House on Thursday for a Black History Month reception, where he was joined by longtime friend 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 country forward to greatness,” said Trump to a crowd of enthusiastic Black supporters inside the East Room. At one point during the event, the room chanted, “Four more years!” in reference to Trump serving a third term — something he repeatedly hints at despite being constitutionally limited to two terms.
As the United States looks to mark the 250th anniversary of its founding next year, Trump said, “We’re going to look forward to honoring the contributions of countless Black Americans who fought to win and protect and expand American freedom from the very, very beginning.”
Throughout his more than 20-minutes-long remarks, in which he stopped to allow other Black leaders to speak, Trump touted his share of the Black vote in the 2024 election, vowed to include Black historical figures in a yet-to-be established statue park and announced that he would name Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as his “pardon czar.”
Trump was joined on stage by golf legend Tiger Woods, who wore his Presidential Medal of Freedom — which he received from Trump during his first term in 2019 — around his neck. Other prominent attendees included Senator Tim Scott, R-S.C., Rep. John James, D-Mich., and the newly confirmed secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner. Alice Johnson, the Black grandmother who received a pardon from Trump in 2018 after serving 21 years in prison, was also in attendance.
Referencing the nation’s founding in 1776, President Trump swiped at the Biden administration, accusing them of trying to “reduce all of American history to a single year, 1619.” The year 1619 became a prominent year of discussion after the publication of Nikole Hannah Jones’ New York Times series, “The 1619 Project,” which explores the central role of slavery and racism throughout American history.
“Under our administration, we honor the indispensable role Black Americans have always played in the immortal cause of another date, in 1776,” said Trump. The president celebrated Prince Estabrook, an enslaved African American, who was the first Black soldier to fight in the American Revolution. Trump said Estabrook would be featured in his planned outdoor statue park, including other Black historical figures like Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Booker T. Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson, Muhammed Ali, Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin.
There’s an irony to President Trump’s celebration of Black History Month, as some federal agencies, including the Defense and State Departments, have opted not to observe it as a result of Trump’s executive order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, and race-conscience programming or policies throughout the federal government, including public school classrooms. His order even calls for private companies to do the same, threatening to withhold federal funding.
Despite Trump and White House officials repeatedly touting his anti-DEI orders — calling the practice illegal and discriminatory — the president did not mention DEI or his orders during Thursday’s Black History Month event. The White House reception comes one day after a coalition of civil and human rights organizations filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its anti-DEI orders, as well as other orders barring equity-related grants and the recognition of transgender people.
“The Trump administration’s assault on equal opportunity will upend the American experiment of multi-racial democracy, and frankly, that is the point,” said Janai Nelson, director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund, which is representing the National Urban League and other plaintiffs in the case. “These orders are a blatant attempt to cement racial discrimination and other inequities at every level of society, with the goal of hoarding power and influence among the wealthy and among an extremist minority.”
At the White House, Trump thanked the Black supporters in the room for reelecting him, telling them, “One of the big reasons I’m president today is because of the Black vote.”
“This is a very special time. It’s Black History Month. We’re going to make America greater than ever before — we’re going to do it together,” said Trump. “We’re going to be fighting long and hard for Black Americans and all Americans.”
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