Trump sends message to Black America, vows to make MLK’s dream a ‘reality’ despite anti-DEI orders

During his inaugural speech following his swearing-in as the 47th president of the United States, President Donald Trump sent a direct message to Black and Latino Americans and vowed to make Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream “a reality.”

“To the Black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote,” Trump said inside the Capitol Rotunda before hundreds, including former Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, and their spouses.

The new president continued, “We set records, and I will not forget it. I’ve heard your voices in the campaign, and I look forward to working with you in the years to come.”

According to exit polls, Trump garnered 13% of Black voters in the 2024 election, compared to Vice President Kamala Harris, who won 86% of the Black vote. Trump won 46% of the Latino vote compared to 51% who voted for Harris.

President Trump also acknowledged that his inauguration coincided with MLK Day, the federal holiday celebrating the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He vowed that in King’s “honor,” his administration would “strive together to make his dream a reality.”

Despite Trump’s pronouncements about Dr. King’s dream for equal social and economic justice for Black Americans, which should translate to justice for all Americans, civil rights and elected leaders who spoke to theGrio point out that Trump’s political views and record, and his proposals for his second administration, contradict what MLK stood for.

“Here we are at this day and time, confronting an administration that wants to do away with diversity equity, and inclusion,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told theGrio during an interview before Trump’s inauguration. “[He] basically wants to rewrite history to the point that our diversity, which most people say is our strength, is now being marginalized with an alternative way of thinking.”

During his inaugural speech on Monday, Trump, who is expected to sign an executive order eliminating DEI programs throughout the federal government, also promised to “end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”

He added, “We will forward to a society that is colorblind and merit-based.”

Trump has made similar pronouncements throughout the 2024 presidential election cycle, as well as remarks at a pre-inauguration “victory rally” in Washington, D.C., where he called diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts “destructive” and “divisive.”

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton told theGrio that DEI is “under siege” by Trump and the Republican Party. He warned that policies to eliminate DEI will “seriously impair our economic standing — not only Black businesses but Black unemployment.” He noted that the American workforce remains diverse because of policies that prioritize diversity mechanisms.

Maya Wiley, president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said of the incoming Trump administration: “We reject efforts to turn our civil rights laws on their head — allowing hate and other harms to befall marginalized communities and victimizing the victims of exclusion from opportunity in education, employment, and housing instead of protecting them, as the laws intend.”

Wiley added, “We won’t back down, and we will never abandon these enduring values. As Dr. King said, ‘A man cannot ride your back unless it is bent.’ The back of the civil rights movement remains unbent.”