Trump admin forces Asheville to remove ‘DEI’ language to access hurricane relief aid
The Trump administration recently denied a funding request from the city of Asheville, North Carolina, to help its recovery from Hurricane Helene, telling the city it must cut a program meant to aid female and minority contractors. The mayor said the city has cut the reference to the program and now expects the plan to win approval.
During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly used the devastation Helene wrought on North Carolina to spread lies and conspiracy theories about the Biden administration’s recovery efforts. In a speech in January, Trump claimed he’d be “taking strong action to get North Carolina the support that you need to quickly recover and rebuild,” and he specifically named Asheville as “a great place, and we’re going to have it be a great place again.”
“Strong action” apparently comes with some strings attached. Because on Monday, Trump’s secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner, denounced Asheville’s 125-page funding plan because of one line, in a section touting the plan’s benefits for vulnerable populations, that said some of the funds to support small businesses would help the city “prioritize assistance for Minority and Women Owned Businesses (MWBE) within the scoring criteria outlined within the policies and procedures.”
“Once again, let me be clear DEI is dead at HUD,” said Turner in a statement. “We will not provide funding to any program or grantee that does not comply with President Trump’s executive orders.”
Now, let me be clear: Nothing in the plan suggested women- and minority-owned businesses would be the sole — or the even primary — beneficiaries of any federal funding Asheville receives. The plan merely listed the program as one of many that could provide aid. But as I reported last February, many white conservatives have framed programs that help minority business owners, who often require assistance to counter discrimination they’ve longed faced from private industries, as discriminatory against white people. [Continue reading…]