President Donald Trump recently held a roundtable at Gateway Church in Dallas, Texas to discuss the White House’s plan to assist in the revitalization of minority communities across the nation. As the nation is still focused on the murder of George Floyd and the national conversation on race that followed, many are looking for solutions.

During the roundtable, the President emphasized the importance of law enforcement and criticized the “Defund the Police” movement. Then, he proceeded to give a high-level overview of his plan to bring about the rebuilding of predominantly black communities. 

The President started off by focusing on economic issues in urban areas. “First, we’re aggressively pursuing economic development in minority communities.  We’re doing it very powerfully.  We’ve done it with Opportunity Zones, but we’re going to go above that.” 

Trump affirmed that his administration would support the growth of businesses in black communities. “At the heart of this effort is increasing access to capital for small businesses, and that’s with minority owners in black communities.  And we’re going to get it done, and it should have been done a long time ago.  It’s been very difficult — very, very difficult for some people.  It’s been unfairly difficult,” he insisted. 

The President’s second step involved the ongoing healthcare disparities between black Americans and other races. He explained:

“Second, we are confronting the healthcare disparities, including addressing chronic conditions and investing substantial sums in minority-serving medical institutions.  We have medical institutions in some areas of our country that are a disgrace.  I was going to say ‘not up to standard.’  They’re much worse than ‘not up to standard.’  They’re a disgrace.  We’ll take care of it.”

At this point, Trump moved on to law enforcement. He indicated that he would issue an executive order that will reimagine certain aspects of policing in America. “Third, we’re working to finalize an executive order that will encourage police departments nationwide to meet the most current professional standards for the use of force, including tactics for de-escalation.”

The President also stated that the White House will “encourage pilot programs that allow social workers to join certain law enforcement officers so that they work together.” 

Lastly, President Trump stated that he will push Congress to make movement on school choice. He explained:

“And, fourth, we’re renewing our call on Congress to finally enact school choice now.  School choice is a big deal because access to education is the civil rights issue of our time.  And I’ve heard that for the last, I would say, year.  But it really is; it’s the civil rights issue of our time.  When you can have children go to a school where their parents want them to go.”

The White House later released a more detailed explanation of the Trump administration’s plan. The update lays out a series of items the administration will be working on. It explained that one of the administration’s initiatives would involve helping residents living in low-income communities gain access to “additional Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding.”

According to the statement, the administration is also “working to expand Opportunity Zones to include more economically distressed communities,” and will “make significant investments in minority-serving healthcare institutions.” 

To further assist in improving healthcare in black communities, the administration is in the process of increasing “access to critical telemedicine and mobile services in underserved areas.” 

Yes, I am well aware of the fact that the term “black agenda” will make conservatives cringe. People on the left likely won’t have much to say about it since they won’t even know that it exists. The corporate media isn’t going to give this particular meeting much coverage, right? 

But the fact that this administration has decided to lay out a specific roadmap for black Americans and other minorities is a positive sign, and not exactly a step that most other Republican presidents would take. If his administration is serious about this plan, and it’s not just lip service, then like it or not, this could easily be seen as Trump’s black agenda, even if it is not named as such. 

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