Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Promotes Excellence and Innovation at HBCUs

TLDR

This is a “fact” sheet for an executive order that relocates the Federal HBCU Initiative to the White House. The fact sheet presents this as unprecedented support for HBCUs, claiming building on past actions like the FUTURE Act and disaster relief. It highlights economic impacts ($16.5B, 136K jobs) and promises to address federal funding barriers. However, the sheet omits that the order terminates an EPA HBCU advisory council and removes specific equity language from the previous administration’s order.

This “fact” sheet presents a selective and potentially misleading portrayal of the referenced executive order’s contents and implications. While it accurately describes some basic structural elements of the order, it omits key context and exaggerates certain claims:

1. “Housed in the Executive Office of the President” - this is accurate, but requires context

   • The EO does relocate the initiative to the White House, but this is not a new approach. Previous administrations had similar placements, and the fact sheet presents this as more revolutionary than it is.

2. “Building on a Legacy of Support” section - this is, at best, misleading, as the fact sheet presents past Trump administration actions as uniquely beneficial to HBCUs, but omits important context:

   • The FUTURE Act was bipartisan legislation that the administration signed but did not initiate
   • The $322 million for hurricane relief was standard disaster funding, not a special initiative for HBCUs
   • The fact sheet omits that the new EO terminates the EPA’s HBCU and Minority Serving Institutions Advisory Council, which contradicts the narrative of expanded support

3. “Empowering HBCUs for America’s Future” section - this too is at least partially misleading

   • The economic impact figures ($16.5 billion, 136,000 jobs) appear to be accurate based on public studies, but the fact sheet implies these are results of Trump administration policies, which is not substantiated.

4. “Initiative will work to address barriers to HBCUs receiving certain Federal and state grant dollars” - this is misleading by omission

   • The fact sheet highlights this function but fails to mention that the EO removes specific equity language that was in the previous administration’s order, which could actually make addressing historical funding disparities more difficult.

5. “President Trump relocated the Federal HBCU Initiative to the White House” - this is another misleading assertion

   • This presents the relocation as a Trump innovation, when in fact various forms of White House HBCU initiatives have existed across multiple administrations.

6. “Faith-based HBCUs received equal access to Federal support” - this assertion is unsubstantiated

   • The fact sheet makes this claim without providing specific policy changes that achieved this outcome.

The fact sheet strategically emphasizes private sector involvement while downplaying the reduction in explicit federal commitments to equity. It presents standard governmental functions as special achievements and omits the elimination of the EPA’s HBCU advisory council, which is a significant change that contradicts the narrative of expanded support.