Sen. Tim Scott Mums The Words As Trump Scraps His Work On Minority Business Development 

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) has remained silent as President Donald Trump dismantled the Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), a program Scott spent years supporting, Politico reports. 

Scott and other Republican colleagues were pivotal in congressional efforts to permanently authorize the federal program that provides mentorship and support, as well as grant funding for business owners and technical support, expanding its reach to rural areas and enhancing the program to help minority-owned businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

However, in a matter of weeks after Trump’s inauguration, the 47th president eliminated all the hard work done by the longest-serving Black Senator in Washington, D.C. 

An anonymous Commerce employee and Democratic staffer said 100% of the agency’s staff — close to 50 people — have been placed on administrative leave or reassigned within the Commerce Department. The Commerce Department employee called Scott’s silence the act of a coward. “They are watching this happen, and they are doing nothing. That’s cowardice,” the employee said. 

“And it cuts especially deep when the people you once believed were your champions turn their backs in silence.” 

The conservative leader was once at the front lines of advocacy to expand access to capital and economic mobility for underserved communities, reminding him of the one he grew up in the rural part of the Palmetto State, and minority businesses, including his own Main Street insurance agency. As one of several Black Trump supporters on Capitol Hill, Scott’s team has celebrated the “life-changing results for minority communities around the nation” while working with the indicted President. 

During Trump’s first term, the newlywed lawmaker secured permanent funding for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), created “opportunity zones” under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and cut taxes for single mothers.

But remaining silent on Trump’s cuts showcases how Scott and other Black conservatives feel the need to walk a fine line between their own interests and remaining loyal to their party and the MAGA tribe, which has launched a war on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Not everyone has been silent on agency moves. In a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell (WA) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE) called the agency’s workforce reduction a “detriment of the U.S. economy” and projected that eliminating MBDA, dating back to the Nixon administration, would have grave effects on its ability to “carry out its programs and duties as mandated by Congress,” according to the New York Times. 

As the agency highlights how cuts could hurt minority-owned businesses already facing barriers to capital, Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, said it will cause small business owners to dish out funds that they may not have. “Its demise is troubling,” Morial said. 

“These businesses now, in order to find these services elsewhere, will either have to pay for them or go without them.”

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