Trump’s DEI – On Juneteenth, A. Scott Bolden argues that policies promoted or advanced by President Donald Trump—particularly executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion—have made Black economic mobility harder, while also seeking to reshape how race and slav
On Juneteenth, the holiday was meant to mark a hard-earned turning point: U.S. troops arrived in Galveston. Texas. on June 19. 1865. to ensure that some of the last enslaved people were freed after the Civil War. For generations. many in the Black community have celebrated that day as the end of a nightmare and the dawn of a new beginning.
But attorney and NewsNation contributor A. Scott Bolden says the work of equality never actually began with emancipation—and that the current moment is moving in the wrong direction. In a call for “a frank. continuing dialogue on race and racism” this Juneteenth. Bolden argues that policies associated with President Donald Trump have set back the pursuit of equal opportunity.
Bolden frames the day as both a reckoning and a demand. He links Juneteenth to the Declaration of Independence’s promise that “all men are created equal. ” while emphasizing that African Americans were excluded from that promise in a racist society that treated them as “subhuman. ” forced them to live in “squalid conditions. ” denied them education. and subjected them to a system of forced labor without pay.
He also points to the long delay between the first Africans being abducted and brought to colonial America in chains and the freedom that Juneteenth commemorates—nearly 250 years later. To illustrate how foundational slavery was to the country’s founding era. Bolden cites that there were nearly 460. 000 enslaved people in the 13 British colonies in 1776. a number that “skyrocketed to almost 4 million in the United States by 1860.” He adds that many of the people who helped shape the early national documents were themselves enslavers. naming that nearly half of the Constitutional Convention’s delegates were enslavers at some point. and that 12 of the first 18 U.S. presidents were also enslavers.
In Bolden’s telling, Juneteenth is not about rewriting the past into something more comfortable. “Remembering the ugly facts of slavery” is presented as necessary, not hateful—something required to learn from the sins of the past and to build what the Constitution calls “a more perfect union.”
That leads to the central dispute he draws between what he describes as truth-telling and what he says Trump is doing now. Bolden points to an executive order issued in 2025 that. in his description. demands that Smithsonian Institution museums eliminate “divisive. race-centered ideology” from exhibits and sets up a mechanism to achieve that goal. He argues that this direction runs against the spirit of Juneteenth.
The financial stakes are where Bolden’s argument becomes sharply measurable. He says Black Americans are “much better off” than in 1865, and acknowledges that some—“including me”—have achieved economic success. Still. he argues that many statistics show Black Americans lag far behind white Americans in reaching an “equitable share of the American dream.”.
He cites 2022 figures placing the median net worth of Black households at about $44,000, compared with about $284,000 for white households. He also cites homeownership data, saying that in 2025 the homeownership rate for Black households was 45.8%, compared with 74.2% for white households. Bolden describes homeownership as a major pathway for passing down family wealth between generations.
In his view, Trump has made upward mobility more difficult. Bolden says the president has issued executive orders to end diversity. equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and has taken other actions that inflict “disproportionate economic harm” on African Americans. Instead of moving the country closer to the Pledge of Allegiance’s “liberty and justice for all” ideal. Bolden says the administration has set back the struggle for equality.
The tension inside his piece doesn’t stop at policy. Bolden also highlights Trump’s repeated denials of racism. including a statement from March in which Trump said. “I am. by the way. the least racist president you’ve had in a long time.” Bolden also references Trump’s earlier remarks during his first term. saying Trump told audiences that he “love[s] the Black community” and “I’ve done more for the Black community than any other president … with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln. ” who ended slavery in Confederate states.
Bolden’s response is direct. If Trump means what he says. Bolden argues the president should end opposition to DEI. stop demanding African American history be rewritten. and lead the national dialogue on race that he says America needs. He says he doesn’t expect Trump to take that advice. but argues there is “a great deal of good” he could do if he did.
The piece ends where it began: with a call for people to act. Bolden urges Americans to reach out to someone of a different race and use Juneteenth to start a “frank and continuing dialogue” about race and racism. spreading “justice. tolerance. freedom. equality and forgiveness” across the country. For him. the holiday’s promise is clear: remembering what happened—without sanitizing it—is part of the work of closing the distance between America’s founding ideals and lived reality.
Juneteenth Trump DEI diversity equity inclusion race wealth gap Black households homeownership rate Smithsonian wealth inequality civil rights