WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was joined by golf star Tiger Woods to mark Black History Month at the White House on Thursday with a reception he called to as a chance to “pay tribute to the generations of Black legends, champions, warriors and patriots who helped drive our country forward to greatness."
The celebration comes as Trump has made ending diversity, inequity and inclusion initiatives a priority, signing an executive order to eliminate them in the federal workforce and spending.
Addressing an exuberant crowd of guests in the East Room, Trump referred to the month as a “very special time,” pledging to work with the Black community to make America “greater than ever before.”
“We're pleased to be joined on this really beautiful afternoon at the White House by hundreds of incredible members of the African American community, many of whom are making history themselves,” Trump said.
The president went on to use the event to announce that he was tapping criminal justice reform advocate Alice Johnson to be his “pardon czar.” Johnson, who herself received a pardon from Trump in 2020 after being convicted of a nonviolent drug offense, will make recommendations on people who should get clemency, the president said.
Trump also announced that a statue of Prince Estabrook, an enslaved man who fought with the Continental Army, would be included in his recently unveiled plan for a National Garden of American Heroes. He added historic Americans such as Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Coretta Scott King, Frederick Douglass, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King Jr., Kobe Bryant and more would be featured in the national park as well.