Trump mistakenly celebrates ‘highest’ Black poverty rate while touting his economy

The Black poverty rate has declined, but an economist tells theGrio that Trump administration policies could make those gains short-lived.

President Donald Trump made a noticeable slip during a recent campaign rally, in which he celebrated the poverty rate among African Americans.

While trying to make the case to voters that his policies are having a positive impact on the U.S. economy in Wichita, Kansas, Trump declared, “We have the most jobs. We have the best numbers. By the way, your 401k is the highest ever, the stock market, the highest ever.”

The president continued, “African American poverty, Hispanic American poverty, and Native American poverty rates are the highest and the best numbers ever recorded by far.”

A high poverty rate is, of course, not a positive data point to highlight for any president. It appears the president intended to tout the poverty rate among Black Americans dropping below pandemic levels to 17.3%, down from 18.4% in 2024. The lowest rate was in 2022, at 17.1%, during Joe Biden’s presidency.

But while President Trump is celebrating a drop in the Black poverty rate, the Black unemployment rate has steadily increased during his second term in office. Economists point to the president’s historic cuts to the federal workforce as a major driver of the Black jobless rate, most especially impacting Black women.

Gbenga Ajilore, chief economist for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, tells theGrio that Trump’s data point on the Black poverty rate should be considered with context.

“The President stated that the poverty rate for several groups fell, and this is not surprising as the recovery from the pandemic recession was broad-based,” Ajilore explained.

He added, “However, this positive effect will be short-lived as the harmful 2025 reconciliation law now being implemented is targeting the very groups that were benefitting from government programs like Medicaid, ACA marketplace coverage, and SNAP.”

President Trump’s signature law, the One Big Beautiful Act, signed on July 4, 2025, made historic cuts to federal health care and food assistance programs, which have disproportionately hurt Black and brown communities.

Ajilore said that while the poverty rate for Black households fell, median income for Black households has “stagnated.”

He explained, “A variety of Trump Administration policies, like cuts to the federal workforce, intentional attacks on inclusionary hiring initiatives, and the imposition of tariffs have directly impacted the standard of living for Black households.”

As theGrio previously reported, a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank found that the Black net worth dropped by 25%, which is nine times lower than the net worth of white households.

“Families across America are struggling, and Black families are bearing the brunt of an economy that makes billionaires richer by keeping working people underpaid and insecure,” said Nadine Smith, president and CEO of Color Of Change. She told theGrio, “Lawmakers must strengthen workers’ power to demand fair pay and make billionaires and corporations pay their fair share for the public services we all depend on. Working families deserve economic security and a fair share of the wealth their labor creates.”