In response to reporting showing that the Black unemployment rate has skyrocketed to its highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, DNC Senior Spokesperson Marcus W. Robinson released the following statement: 

“Donald Trump has spent the past week lying about job numbers, despite overwhelming evidence that his presidency has been a disaster for job seekers. His economic failures are costing Black Americans their livelihoods. The July jobs report revealed that Black unemployment has surged to its highest level since 2021. After gutting federal programs that helped Black job seekers, pushing a budget that threatens health care and food assistance for Black families, and eliminating grants that supported Black small business owners, Black communities are once again being left behind.”

REMINDER: On top of his actions skyrocketing Black unemployment, Trump signed a budget bill into law that would rip away health care from 17 million Americans — disproportionately hurting Black Americans. 

CNBC: “Trump’s bill combined with separate policy changes could result in an estimated 17 million people losing health insurance, said Robin Rudowitz, director of the program on Medicaid and the uninsured at health policy research organization KFF.” 

Economic Policy Institute: “Cuts to Medicaid will disproportionately hurt people of color and children”

“In 2023, after the end of the Medicaid re-enrollment provision that helped families and children remain insured throughout the pandemic, Black and Hispanic individuals were twice as likely as their white peers to lose coverage.

“Federal cuts to Medicaid follow a long history of political battles over publicly provided health coverage, with major implications for communities of color. The Affordable Care Act and its expansion of Medicaid helped reduce the nonelderly Black and Hispanic uninsured rate by more than 10 percentage points between 2010 and 2023.”

Trump and Republicans’ budget bill would also cut food assistance for more than 22 million families — worsening food insecurity in Black communities. 

CNBC: “The changes will cause 22.3 million families to lose some or all of their SNAP benefits, according to the institute, a nonpartisan provider of policy research. Its analysis is based on the legislation passed by the Senate, which the House did not change before voting for the bill, signed into law by President Donald Trump.”

Economic Policy Institute: “Cuts to SNAP benefits will disproportionately harm families of color and children”

“More than one in five Black, American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN), and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NHPI) households relied on SNAP to meet their nutritional needs in the 2019–2023 period.

“More than two million people of color, including over 800,000 Black and over 900,000 Hispanic people, avoided poverty thanks to the support provided by SNAP.”

Trump’s policies have made it harder for Black Americans to support their families and earn a living.

MSNBC: “The executive order lays out Trump’s plans to axe seven government entities, including the Minority Business Development Agency, saying they each ‘shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.’”

“The Minority Business Development Agency was created during the Richard Nixon administration and has a self-described mission ‘to promote the growth and global competitiveness of Minority Business Enterprises in order to unlock the country’s full economic potential.’”

###