Daily SumUp

Donald Trump’s claim that historically Black colleges and universities won’t have to worry about federal funding cuts under his administration barely lasted days before being proved false.

I wrote about the president’s vow to protect HBCU funding last week, after sports commentator Stephen A. Smith (whose coziness with the MAGA movement I’ve documented here) asked Trump a somewhat fawning question about HBCUs during a NewsNation town hall. The background here is that HBCU leaders have openly fretted about what the Trump administration’s attempt to dismantle the Education Department and its assault on diversity initiatives could mean for the sustainability of their schools.

After touting Trump’s previous “contributions” to HBCUs, Smith asked the president whether HBCUs should be concerned about the federal government reducing their already slim budgets, and Trump responded “not at all” before going on a misinformation-filled, self-aggrandizing rant falsely portraying himself as a savior of HBCUs. Just two days later, the White House released a budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year that would cut tens of millions of dollars from Howard University’s budget.