U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) (R) introduces Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, at a roundtable discussion with community members on October 18, 2024, in Auburn Hills, Michigan. | Source: Win McNamee / Getty
President-elect Donald Trump has rewarded the historic percentage of Black men who voted for him by not including any of them among his choices of top presidential advisers.
After making a flurry of nominations over the past week, punctuated by the candidates’ concerning collision of white supremacy and inexperience for their chosen positions, the Black people – particularly the Black men – who were open and proud in their support of Trump’s candidacy, sharing rhetoric about how Trump’s election would be better for the Black U.S. population, are apparently excluded from the top levels of Trump’s “concepts of a plan” to purportedly make America great again.
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In other words, after infamously saying in a presidential debate that immigrants were “taking Black jobs,” it may just turn out that there aren’t any “Black jobs” in the second go-round of Trump’s White House.
Some observers might label this turn of events as irony. But, of course, that would be tantamount to an open admission of obliviousness during this past election cycle, which was replete with unabashed racist dog whistling strategically wielded to attract Black voters.
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As it turns out, most of those Black voters who were swayed by his messages (during publicity stunts in, um, a chicken fast food restaurant and, er, speaking about the first Black woman vice president in racially stereotypical terms, for example) were men.
And while the gains Trump made with Black men this year compared to 2020 were likely inconsequential to his election, especially compared to decisive voting trends from other key demographics like white women and Latinos, the persisting, amplified narrative nonetheless has centered on Democrats losing grip of their loyal base of African American male voters.
It’s not without reason.
After all, the 2024 election reflected the smallest share of Black voters supporting a Democratic nominee since 2016, emphasizing Trump’s gains.
Black men like South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Florida Rep. Byron Donalds – both loyal MAGA Republicans, the former who didn’t hesitate to widen his eyes and show all of his teeth every chance he got and the latter who wasn’t afraid to have white colleague pat and rub his head in public – were among the national leaders spreading that aforementioned narrative in hyperbolic terms.
Lest we forget how Scott has repeatedly and falsely insisted that America is not a racist nation while Donalds made headlines at an event for Black men called “Congress, Cognac and Cigars” where he openly lamented how the Jim Crow era was better for Black families in the U.S.
Considering that impressive display of tapdancing for Trump’s approval, and what with Trump’s consistent and unbelievable denial of being racist, it seemed almost obligatory that there would be at least one Black person nominated to serve in Trump’s cabinet and/or senior presidential administration capacities.
But more than a week into Trump’s selections of at least 24 people, the only person on that list with any hint of brown skin is Vivek Ramaswamy, the billionaire MAGA loyalist who once lied on live TV about an exchange he had with a Black man in Springfield, Ohio, who told him very clearly and unmistakably that he had been called the N-word “twice this week,” which he attributed to Trump’s and JD Vance’s thoroughly debunked racist nonsense regarding Haitian immigrants abducting and eating the pets of Springfield residents.
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In fact, Ramaswamy and the others on Trump’s list of cabinet hopefuls all largely represent levels of various extremism that run counter to the general interests of Black America.
It’s important to remember that Republicans have a long history of using Black people as props for political theater performances.
And that brings us back to Scott and Donaldson, both of whom have seemingly been jockeying for position for this very moment – to be chosen as the proverbial “one” Black person in Trump’s upcoming administration.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) (2nd-R) speaks as Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump (L), North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum (2nd-R) and Vivek Ramaswamy (R) listen during a campaign rally in the basement ballroom of The Margate Resort on January 22, 2024 in Laconia, New Hampshire. Both Burgum and Ramaswamy have been nominated for Trump’s cabinet, not Scott. | Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty
But while Trump had several Black people in his administration at various times – including fellow Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault Newman and former HUD Secretary Ben Carson, both of whom critics said were unqualified for their positions – he seems poised to surround himself without the presence of a single African American.
Scott, seemingly understanding that Trump probably doesn’t want him or any other Black people in his administration, last week was selected by his fellow Republican Senators to be the next chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Still, despite, the apparent snub, Scott suggested that his new “Black job” would be to help increase Republican representation in the U.S. Senate and, as he told Fox News, make sure Trump “does not have two years with a Republican majority in the Senate, he has four years in control.”
Donalds, meanwhile, who, like Trump, represents Florida, has been conspicuously absent from a steady stream of politicos from the Sunshine State selected to serve in the upcoming presidential administration. That includes the likes of Congressman Matt Gaetz, who was the subject of a bipartisan House investigation into alleged sexual activity with a minor and drug use, for U.S. Attorney General; Congressman Mike Waltz for National Security Advisor; and Sen. Marco Rubio for Secretary of State.
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But at the end of the day, this is what Donalds, Scott and any other Black man or woman who voted for Trump apparently asked for by supporting a candidate who openly campaigned to uphold elements of white supremacy and inspired the Republican playbook designed to restrict civil liberties better known as Project 2025.
The Black men who campaigned for Trump were fully aware of Project 2025 as well as his documented and extensive track record on race and overall history of being a con artist. Trump even said his mugshot for one of his multiple felony criminal cases would attract Black voters and released a line of sneakers to double down on that hollow, racist sentiment.
And now he’s rewarding those same Black men by leaving them – or, more likely, him – to be among the last, if any, of his cabinet picks, a potential metaphor for how he’ll prioritize a historically neglected group of people who helped elect him president again.
This is America.
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