Florida congressman Byron Donalds brushed off criticism from Rev. Al Sharpton regarding President-elect Donald Trump’s failure to nominate any Blacks to his administration, telling CNN’s Laura Coates, “I am not surprised that I have not been named.”
Donalds, one of Trump’s most vocal defenders on the campaign trail, finds himself on the outside looking in at Trump’s next cabinet, along with a host of other Black Republicans who helped persuade a wave of Black voters to support Trump, but now have nothing to show for their extraordinary efforts.
During the segment on “Laura Coates Live” Wednesday night, Donalds defended Trump, saying the president-elect was simply choosing the best people and that he wasn’t done making all of his picks despite having announced more than two dozen cabinet nominees so far, not one of them Black.
“I think it’s criticism where people are upset that they still lost this election,” Donalds said. “And so if you were going to ask Rev. Al or anybody else in the Democrat Party, they’re still licking their wounds about the fact that this did not work out the way they thought it was going to.”
After this, Donalds named several of Trump’s cabinet picks whom he argued were examples of diversity, despite none of them being Black.
“Donald Trump’s cabinet is about people who are going to implement his agenda, and he’s not done, by the way. You have Susie Wiles, the first woman ever to serve as chief of staff. You have Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American who’s gonna serve as secretary of state, representing America across the globe when it comes to foreign policy. You have Tulsi Gabbard who’s gonna be at DNI, so many others that are coming, and there’s still slots left to be filled. So I think everybody needs to pump the brakes and just wait and see what happens.”
Donalds then told Coates that he believed Sharpton and the Democrats were prioritizing race and appearances over substance while criticizing the cabinet picks that Joe Biden made after his election in 2020.
Donalds: All I will say is, I am not surprised that I have not been named, but that does not mean I'm not going to do other things in the future.
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 21, 2024
Coates: Has they asked you?
Donalds: No, there are some other things that I’m looking at pic.twitter.com/Bl3LXGRbG3
“Even if you look at how the Democrats filled the Joe Biden cabinet, they wanted to have a piece of every identity, but did they get the job done?” Donalds asked rhetorically, defending Trump’s lack of focus on diversity. “Did they actually serve the interest of the American people?”
From there, Donalds pivoted to familiar GOP talking points on border security, sidestepping the question about the lack of diversity in Trump’s inner circle. Instead of addressing the absence of Black people in top positions, where key roles were largely filled by whites, Donalds turned to his typical spinning of the narrative.
“Because here’s what I know, whether you’re Black or Hispanic, if the border’s unsecured, excuse me, Alejandro Mayorkas, does that help people in their everyday lives? No, it does not,” Donalds added, taking a jab at the current secretary of Homeland Security, who has been vilified by conservatives for what they characterize as the country’s border failures.
“And so, what we, (here, Donalds quickly corrected himself) what Donald Trump’s election is about, is bringing competency and reality back to D.C. in the White House, making sure that the job gets done on behalf of the American people, regardless of their race, regardless of their religion, regardless of their creed.”
Coates then pushed back, pointing out Donalds’ prominent role in Trump’s campaign yet the absence of any significant position for him in the administration.
“I remember when your name came up as a potential speaker of the House. There were many who speculated that based on the prominent role you played in this campaign and election, that your name would have skyrocketed to at least to the front of the line. We are several cabinet picks in, are you not surprised that you have not been named? Have you had a conversation about being a part of the administration at all?”
Donalds then tried to make it sound like he never expected to be picked, as his overall demeanor suggested he was OK with that.
“All I will say is, I am not surprised that I have not been named, but that does not mean I’m not going to do other things in the future.”
But Coates challenged him again, saying, “Have they asked you?” but this only led to more obfuscation from Donalds.
“No, there are some other things that I’m looking at going forward,” he said coyly, declining to reveal his plans. “I’m not gonna talk about them now.”
Coates jokingly erupted: “You always do this!” — breaking the tension of the interview.
However, social media users were not as nice, with Donalds facing intense mockery for his unwavering loyalty to Trump, even as it became increasingly apparent that Trump was distancing himself from one of his most ardent Black supporters from the campaign trail.
“You know they’re hiring for the Department of the Butlers or the Department of the Cotton Fields,” one commenter observed on X.
In the past, Donalds has drawn controversy for his unwavering support of Trump, despite Trump’s consistent racial provocations and divisive rhetoric. Critics have accused Donalds of turning a blind eye to the president’s dog whistles —comments that often target racial minorities and fuel far-right extremist groups.
On social media, critics compared Donalds to Gregory Cheadle, a former Black Republican who left the GOP after Trump insultingly called him “my African American” during a campaign rally in California in 2016.
In a similar scenario back in September, Trump gave Donalds a special shout-out at one of his MAGA rallies in western Pennsylvania.
When Trump spotted Donalds in the audience, he asked him to stand up and praised him as a “superstar of the future,” but then sparked controversy by putting Donald’s character above that of other Black Americans.
“He’s great. He knows exactly what I’m talking about,” Trump said to the cheering audience. “That one is smart. You have smart ones, and you have some that aren’t quite so good.”
Trump: Byron Donalds, Florida. That one is smart. You have smart ones and you have some that aren’t quite so good. pic.twitter.com/Lf3ynyqx6i
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 30, 2024
At the time, numerous voices on social media blasted Trump for making the bigoted remark, given the fact that most Black people are critical of Trump while Donalds has been a consistent champion of the MAGA agenda.
So far, the only person of color among Trump’s 27 cabinet nominees is Vivek Ramaswamy, a 39-year-old Republican entrepreneur and son of Indian immigrants, who is being considered alongside billionaire Elon Musk as co-commissioners for Trump’s newly established Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump’s other handpicked nominees are all mostly white, though some have Hispanic origins.
The fact has not gone unnoticed on social media, where sharp-tongued critics have ridiculed Black lawmakers for their continuing fealty to Trump while making fun of their exclusion from the cabinet.
Notably, some of Trump’s most vocal Black campaign advocates, including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, former HUD Secretary Ben Carson, and ex-NFL star Herschel Walker, have been glaringly excluded from Trump’s circle of trust in the lead-up to his second term.
Since the election, social media users have heckled Donalds and the others, calling them “Uncle Toms” and “Tokens” while accusing them of turning their backs on their own race.
“Hatred for your own people is true sickness,” an X user commented on a thread Thursday.
Many of Trump’s appointments have also been controversial, reflecting his prioritization of loyalty over selecting individuals who might challenge his decisions while in office.
Trump’s picks for defense secretary, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, and attorney general, former Congressman Matt Gaetz, are facing sexual misconduct allegations ahead of their Senate confirmation hearings. Anticipating the controversy, Trump has stated he will pursue recess appointments to bypass Senate approval and ensure his choices take office without delay. However, Gaetz pulled his name from consideration on Thursday afternoon.
Ben Carson’s absence from the cabinet also came as a shock to some after Trump gushingly praised him at the annual Black Conservative Federation gala in South Carolina this past summer, when Trump spoke highly of Carson, calling the retired neurosurgeon a “special man,” “competitive guy,” and “a great friend of mine,” while also caroling Carson’s tenure as the head of the Housing and Urban Development department in his first administration.
Carson was seated in the audience as Trump addressed the crowd of Black Republican conservatives, with whom he sought to boost his appeal as President Joe Biden faced criticism for his perceived lack of actions to support the Black community.
“He did a great job,” Trump recounted while falsely claiming that Carson’s record was free from scandal.
But now that Carson doesn’t have a seat at the table, critics expressed wonder at why Carson is out in the cold after helping Trump win over Black voters in 2024 — raising suspicions that Trump was simply pandering to the Black community during his stump speech.