Trump administration uses King's 'Dream' speech to introduce executive orders cutting DEI

Source: NBC News

Jan. 21, 2025, 4:26 PM EST


When an incoming White House official announced Donald Trump’s executive order dismantling federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the official invoked a familiar line: “This order is meant to return to the promise and the hope that was captured by civil rights champions, that one day all Americans can be treated on the basis of their character, not by the color of their skin.”

The statement echoed a well-known quote from Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, in which King declared, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Hours later, in his inaugural address, Trump noted that it was “Martin Luther King Day, and his honor, this will be a great honor, but in his honor we will strive together to make his dream a reality. We will make his dream come true.”

Conservatives commonly use King’s words when speaking about their plans to end racial equity initiatives and carry out other conservative efforts, said historian William Horne, assistant editor of the University of Maryland’s Freedmen and Southern Society Project and co-founder of The Activist History Review.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/trump-dei-cuts-martin-luther-king-jr-rcna188418