President Donald J. Trump listens to participants address their remarks during a roundtable on race relations Wednesday, June 10, 2020, with prominent black leaders in the Cabinet Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)
During a roundtable event last week in Dallas, President Trump focused the discussion on “advancing the cause of justice and freedom.” President Trump zeroed in on inclusiveness and opportunity for every American, Kimberley Strassel reports in the WSJ.
The diversity of the Trump administration belies the “common and absurd claim” that President Trump is “racist.” As evidence, consider the programs it has pursued:
- Sentencing reform.
- Unprecedented focus on vocational education.
- Funding for historically black colleges.
- Tackling the opioid epidemic.
- Trump in 2018 set up the Opportunity and Revitalization Council, which Scott Turner and Ben Carson oversee. In May the council put out a report brimming with case studies and best practices for spurring investment in economically distressed areas.
School Choice
At the event, Attorney General William Barr called education the “civil-rights issue of our time,” arguing for school choice.
Fix Health Care Disparities
Housing Secretary Ben Carson focused on efforts to use telemedicine to remedy health-care disparities.
Help to Distressed Communities
Scott Turner, executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, touted the success of “opportunity zones,” created in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
Mr. Trump campaigned in 2016 to work on behalf of “forgotten” Americans—whether they be in struggling blue-collar areas, inner-city minority communities, or rural towns. As fate would have it, both the coronavirus and George Floyd’s death have shined a spotlight on glaring disparities in the country.
The white-collar elite work safely from home in shut-down cities, while hands-on workers and small-business owners become economic statistics. The focus on rare cases of police abuse has resurfaced the all-too-common reality of so many African-American communities—crime, high unemployment, poor health care, failing schools.
Democratic Anger, Fear, Gloom
The theme of an American Dream is optimistic and inclusive, and as Ms. Strassel points out, “a needed contrast to perpetual Democratic anger, partisan and racial animus, the fear and gloom of the virus.”
The administration aside, that kind of positive agenda could prove a lifeline for Senate Republicans who have been provided little that is forward-looking to campaign on, and who aren’t running against Mr. Biden.
Make America Great Again – for All.
Ms. Strassel notes that there is a reason President Trump talks frequently about the historically low black and Hispanic unemployment rates.
Trump is genuinely proud of them.
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