President Donald Trump delivered remarks at the White House’s latest Black History Month celebration this week, snapping selfies and candid photos as Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and James Brown’s “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World” played in the background.
Trump kicked off the celebration by paying homage to the late civil rights activist, Reverend Jesse Jackson.
“Jesse was a piece of work, but he was a good man,” Trump said. “He was a real hero. I just want to pay my highest respects to Reverend Jesse Jackson.”
The president praised black cabinet members from his administration including former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson, who will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Trump announced.
“Ben’s getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Trump said. “It’s the highest award you can have outside of the Congressional Medal of Honor.”
Trump also revealed Carson advocated for the current HUD Secretary, Scott Turner, to run Carson’s former department.
“He was recommended by someone who is very special to me,” Trump said. “When Ben recommends somebody I just do it.”
Turner, who was described as an “energizer bunny,” by his mentor Carson, said from the podium that he “never thought that I would see the day when I am standing between the president and Dr. Ben Carson. That’s pretty cool.”
“As we celebrate this special day in not only black history but American history, this year that we’ve been here you know under President Trump, the Lord has been so gracious to us and he’s been faithful and the President has been a tremendous leader,” Turner said. The Washington Reporter has frequently interviewed Turner, including on a recent trip with him and with Attorney General Pam Bondi to Memphis.
Ahead of the event, the White House applauded the president’s ongoing efforts to expand economic opportunity and strengthen education. Such efforts include the First Step Act, signed during Trump’s first administration, which enacted criminal justice reforms to reduce recidivism, promote fairness, and provide second chances for individuals reentering society.
Alice Johnson, the administration’s “Pardon Czar,” said during the event that Trump, who facilitated her 2020 pardon, was “for” black America.
“Don’t let anyone tell you that this president right here, Donald Trump … is not for black America, because he is,” Johnson said.
Johnson said that her story was a “Joseph story,” before proclaiming that “this president right here, President Donald Trump, brought me from the prison pit to the White House.”
Johnson reflected that “the message we are sending America is that we know that our president is for black America.”
Johnson explained that the pardon process includes presenting vetted cases to the White House counsel and ensuring that candidates are “not a safety risk to the community.” She also discussed the reversal the Trump administration will make of former President Bill Clinton’s 1994 crime bill.
“They said it was a war on drugs but it was more a war on families because young men, young women, were put in prison for life sentences and today they would not receive a life-sentence,” she said. “So the president is certainly righting those wrongs. We’re about redemption and belief in people.”
