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In a memorandum, the White House Office of Management and Budget cited unspecified reports that “Executive Branch employees must attend trainings where they are told that ‘virtually all whites contribute to racism’ or where it requires them to say that they ‘benefit from racism.’
FILE: US President Donald Trump makes a statement in the White House meeting room on May 22, 2020 in Washington, DC. Image: AFP
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump has ordered government agencies to end anti-racism training sessions for federal employees on the grounds that they amount to “divisive and anti-American propaganda.”
The order comes as Trump works to appeal to his white blue-collar base as he fights an uphill battle for re-election amid a tense national settling of accounts over racial injustice in the police and other walks of life.
In a memorandum, the White House Office of Management and Budget cited unspecified reports that “Executive Branch employees must attend trainings where they are told that ‘virtually all whites contribute to racism’ or where it requires them to say that they ‘benefit from racism.’
He added: “According to press reports, in some cases these trainings have further asserted that there is racism rooted in the belief that America is the land of opportunity or in the belief that the most qualified person should get a job.”
“The President has directed me to ensure that federal agencies cease and desist from using taxpayer money to fund these divisive and anti-American propaganda training sessions,” wrote office director Russell Vought.
It directed the agencies to “identify all contracts or other agency expenses related to any training in ‘critical race theory’, ‘white privilege’ or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests (1) that States United is a racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil. ”
“The divisive, false and degrading propaganda of the movement critical of racial theory runs counter to everything we stand for as Americans and should have no place in the federal government,” the memo added.
Trump doubled down on Saturday morning, releasing more than 20 tweets and retweets on the subject, including one calling critical race theory the “greatest threat to Western civilization.”
“No longer!” Trump wrote.
Protests in major cities across the United States erupted after the death of African-American George Floyd in May by a white police officer in Minneapolis, and erupted again last month after another black man, Jacob Blake, was shot. on the back by a white cop. in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Trump, who is pushing for a strict line of law and order in the run-up to the November elections, has criticized the protesters as violent anarchists.
This week, the President of the United States visited Kenosha, but did not meet with Blake’s family, who was paralyzed from the waist down, but instead met with law enforcement officials and observed the damage caused by the protests sparked by the shooting.
Trump’s election rival Joe Biden also visited Kenosha this week: He spoke to Blake on the phone and met face-to-face with his family.
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