Trump claims civil rights laws left white people ‘very badly treated’
President Donald Trump said in a recent interview that he believes civil rights-era protections caused white people to be "very badly treated."
Trump made the comments while speaking with The New York Times on Wednesday about whether protections that began in the 1960s, which resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act, resulted in discrimination against white men.
"Well, I think that a lot of people were very badly treated," Trump began. "White people were very badly treated, where they did extremely well and they were not invited to go into a university or a college."
The president continued, "So I would say in that way, I think it was unfair in certain cases. I think it was also, at the same time, it accomplished some very wonderful things, but it also hurt a lot of people — people that deserve to go to a college or deserve to get a job were unable to get a job.
"So it was, it was a reverse discrimination," Trump said.
Derrick Johnson, the president of the National Associated for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said in a statement to The New York Times that there was "no evidence that white men were discriminated against as a result of the civil rights movement, the Civil Rights Act, and efforts to rectify the long history of this country denying access to people based on race in every measurable category."
A 2025 Blackout Report by the nonprofit Onyx Impact details "15,723 distinct impact points — each one an instance in which Black opportunities, lives, or histories have been directly attacked" since the Trump administration took power in January 2025.
"The harm is concrete and undeniable. Black businesses and entrepreneurs are being pushed out of jobs and contracts ... (and) students are learning warped and incomplete history," the report's authors wrote.
"Protections against discrimination are being slashed. Pathways to health, education, and opportunity are being blocked," they continued.
The report found that, among other things:
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6,769 federal datasets at agencies ranging from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to the U.S. Justice Department have been erased.
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More than 591 Black books were banned in 2025 across six states. The removed titles include works by Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Ibram X. Kendi, according to Axios .
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More than $3.4 billion in federal grants were cut or frozen for programs that increased health, education and opportunity for the nation's Black Americans.
"When datasets or historical materials disappear, it becomes harder to see, and fix, racial disparities," Maya Wiley, who leads the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, told Axios.
The report highlighted cuts to programs that address public health threats for Black Americans, including sickle cell disease.
The report found that the Trump administration had "terminated at least 14 major federal grants, totaling more than $9.4 million, to fund research and treatment" for sickle cell disease, which is a major health issue for Black Americans .
The report also pointed to what its authors described as "historic" employment reductions, starting in February 2025, that have resulted in the highest Black unemployment rate since 2021.
The report found that 306,000 Black women have lost their jobs in 2025, with the cuts coming from both federal agencies and the private sector.
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