Trump’s Orders Impact on Black Americans Explained

President Donald Trump has spent the early months of his return to the White House dismantling the nation’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The moves, he’s said, are designed to forge a “color-blind” society that rejects race-conscious programs intended to make amends for the historical wrongs experienced by Black Americans and other marginalized groups.

While Trump has signed an executive order pledging to promote “excellence and innovation” at historically Black colleges, he’s also signed orders seeking to sanitize the country’s history of race, gut the U.S. Department of Education, and dismantle the federal government’s DEI programs. This latter action has resulted in mass firings that threaten to erode the federal service’s status as a lifeline for Black families hoping to reach the middle class.

In January, Trump turned a tragedy into a moment to broadcast his grievances about DEI. The day after a midair collision between an American Airlines plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C., killed 67 people, the president, citing no evidence, blamed DEI efforts at the Federal Aviation Administration.

His comments came after he had removed all the members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee. It also came just weeks before the administration began firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees, raising concerns among air safety experts about the future of air travel.

Here’s an overview of some of Trump’s more high-profile orders — which encompass everything from transgender equality to climate change — and their potential impact on Black communities.

Trump signed an order aimed at identifying sanctuary cities, or jurisdictions that refuse to assist with the administration’s immigration crackdown. The order instructs the U.S. departments of Justice and Homeland Security to contact jurisdictions the administration has deemed to be out of compliance and determine whether to suspend or terminate federal funds to these areas. Courts have already pushed back against the administration’s efforts on this front. In April, a federal judge blocked the administration from denying funds to 16 sanctuary cities, saying that these actions are likely unconstitutional.

Trump signed an order seeking to beef up legal protections for state and local law enforcement officers. It instructs the attorney general to “prioritize the prosecution” of officials who “willfully and unlawfully direct the obstruction of criminal law, including by directly and unlawfully prohibiting law enforcement officers from carrying out duties necessary for public safety and law enforcement.” The order potentially lays the groundwork for additional confrontations between the federal government and state and local officials. It directs the attorney general to “pursue all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures” against those who “unlawfully engage in discrimination or civil-rights violations under the guise of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ initiatives.” Within 90 days, the attorney general and secretary of defense are expected to work with the secretary of homeland security to determine how to increase military and national security assets for local law enforcement.

Trump signed an order promising to advance “excellence and innovation” at HBCUs, saying that these schools “remain integral to American students’ pursuit of prosperity and wellbeing, providing the pathway to a career and a better life.” The order establishes the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to, among other things, strengthen financial planning and management at HBCUs and boost their affordability, retention rates, and institutional infrastructure. The order revokes former President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14041, which had sought to “build a pipeline for students that may be interested in attending HBCUs, facilitate HBCU modernization, address college affordability, and promote degree attainment.” The initiative established by the order will be led by a Trump-appointed executive director. That person is expected to submit a yearly progress report that details “the federal government’s impact on HBCUs and [provides] recommendations for improvement.”

Trump signed an order accusing the Smithsonian Institution of having “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.” The order said the Smithsonian has “promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.” Political leaders and historians have warned that the order threatens to sanitize U.S. history. U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke of New York said in a statement, “We do not run from or erase our history simply because we don’t like it.” Clarissa Myrick-Harris, a professor at Morehouse College, shared similar sentiments, telling the Associated Press that “it seems like we’re headed in the direction where there’s even an attempt to deny that the institution of slavery even existed, or that Jim Crow laws and segregation and racial violence against Black communities, Black families, Black individuals even occurred.” According to the order, Trump wants to “restore truth and sanity to American history.” He has empowered Vice President JD Vance to review all Smithsonian programs and centers, and remove what he calls “improper ideology from such properties.” Trump also has tasked U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum with determining if monuments “have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history” since January 2020.

Trump signed an order calling for the closure of the Department of Education so that children and their families can “escape a system that is failing them.” The order is essentially pushing for the department to be stripped of its most critical functions, including managing a $1.7 trillion portfolio of student loans and providing services for students with disabilities. Ivory Toldson, a Howard University professor who previously served as the director of education for the NAACP, recently told Capital B, “A lot of what Trump is doing is regressive.” It’s uncertain how Trump would shutter the department, given that closing the federal agency, which was created in 1979, requires an act of Congress.

Trump signed an order dismantling federal agencies’ DEI programs, impugning these initiatives as “wasteful,” “immoral,” and “shameful.” He signed another order revoking Executive Order 11246, which was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 to prohibit discriminatory hiring and employment practices for government contractors. Trump is gutting one of the main mechanisms that his predecessor used to encourage racial diversity in the federal government. One of former President Joe Biden’s chief goals when he entered office was to encourage diversity across the federal workforce. To that end, he signed a wide-ranging order in 2021 directing agencies to draw up plans for prioritizing diversity in hiring and retention. The memo also asked federal agencies to submit a written plan by Jan. 31 for dismissing these employees. Civil rights organizations have announced that they will work with organizations to “explore and document the harmful impact of current anti-DEI laws” at the federal level.

Trump signed an order seeking to ban transgender troops from openly serving in the military and restrict gender-affirming care for youth. Trump’s actions immediately sparked fear among transgender Americans. The stakes are especially high for Black transgender and nonbinary youth, 21% of whom have attempted suicide in the past year and almost half of whom don’t feel safe at school. Civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the military ban as unconstitutional.

Trump signed an order to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization, accusing the agency of “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China.” The order instructs the U.S. Secretary of State and the director of the Office of Management and Budget to “take appropriate measures” to “pause the future transfer of any United States Government funds, support, or resources to the WHO.” The U.S. is required to give one year’s notice that it intends to withdraw.

Trump signed an order pausing the enforcement of a law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless its China-based parent company sells to a U.S. approved buyer, citing concerns about national security and the use of private data. Eight content creators filed a lawsuit to reverse the ban, arguing that it jeopardizes their personal income and creative expression. A federal judge issued a two-week restraining order on what he called Trump’s “blatantly unconstitutional” birthright citizenship order, at least temporarily blocking it.

Trump signed an order directing the attorney general to “take all necessary and lawful action to ensure that each state that allows capital punishment” has the drugs needed to conduct executions via lethal injection. Civil rights organizations have long called on federal and state governments to abolish capital punishment, highlighting the ongoing racial disparities in sentencing in the U.S. Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, is expected to receive Senate confirmation and follow through on his directions.