President Donald Trump decried the impacts of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguing that it ultimately led to white people being “very badly treated.”
“White people were very badly treated, where they did extremely well and they were not invited to go into a university to college,” Trump told The New York Times, referring to affirmative action in college admissions, which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023. The president added, “So I would say in that way, I think it was unfair in certain cases.”
Trump and senior administration officials have repeatedly pointed to the SCOTUS case on affirmative action, which was limited to higher education admissions, to justify opposition to other racial equity policies. On his second day in office on Jan. 20, 2025, Trump signed an executive order prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion in both the public and private sectors, which have been met with several lawsuits.
The president continued his thoughts about the Civil Rights Act, telling the Times, “I think it was also, at the same time, it accomplished some very wonderful things, but it also hurt a lot of people — people that deserve to go to a college or deserve to get a job were unable to get a job. So it was, it was a reverse discrimination.”
Trump’s remarks are his most explicit embrace of “reverse discrimination” and come a month after the president’s chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which is responsible for enforcing civil rights laws against workplace discrimination, issued a PSA to white men.
“Are you a white male who’s experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws,” said Andrea Lucas said a video message.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson in a statement to theGrio said, “Donald Trump knows he is lying through his teeth. The issue isn’t that he is unaware of the history or lacks education–it’s that deception is the point.”
Johnson continued, “There is zero evidence–none–that the civil rights movement harmed white men in any way. He is hoping we swallow his lie again, so that he can continue to privatize education, cut social services, and repeal civil rights laws and enforcement mechanisms. It’s all about making more money–even if we all suffer as a result.”
The NAACP filed several lawsuits against the Trump administration related to its anti-DEI efforts and notably declined to invite President Trump to its national convention, marking the first time in 116 years that the legacy civil rights organization did not invite the sitting president of the United States.
Johnson said Trump’s latest comments are intentional and undermine the safety and stability of Black Americans, but all vulnerable communities in order to benefit the wealthy.
“Trump does this all the time—he deliberately invents a false reality to lay the groundwork for policies that further benefit the top 1 percent by privatizing government services and stripping resources away from underserved communities,” he told theGrio. “When Trump lied about immigrants devastating communities, that was to justify spending billions in taxpayer dollars on his ICE paramilitary. When he claims that Greenland is under threat of being invaded by Russia or China, it’s to justify a U.S. takeover of Greenland so he can drill more oil and mine more rare earth minerals.”
Johhnson added, “First he lies, then he profits.”
As theGrio previously reported, Trump’s anti-DEI agenda has led to a significant loss of jobs for Black Americans, who currently have an unemployment rate of 7.5%, which is higher than the national rate, despite Black Americans making up only 13% of the population.
