The Trump administration is facing criticism for allegedly targeting the black middle-class during the ongoing government shutdown. Concerns have emerged as the shutdown, now in its 30th day, continues to impact numerous federal workers, with a significant portion of those affected belonging to the black community.

Black employees make up 19 percent of the federal workforce, a stark contrast to their 13 percent representation in the overall U.S. labor force. Many of these workers reside in the affluent suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C., which are recognized as some of the wealthiest black communities in the nation.

The prolonged deadlock between Republicans and Democrats has resulted in hundreds of thousands of government employees being furloughed or laid off, fueling frustrations and accusations of intentional harm against the black middle-class. Some critics point fingers at President Donald Trump, suggesting he is deliberately targeting black workers, especially women, through this shutdown.

In response to these allegations, the White House told the Daily Mail, “How are we targeting them with the government shutdown? We want the government open.” This statement attempts to counter the claims of racial targeting during this political standoff.

Adding to the discourse, comedian Clark Larew Jones shared on Threads his perspective as a “black millennial kid,” acknowledging the high value placed on securing a “good government job” within his family, highlighting the significance of federal employment in black communities.

Comedian Clark Larew Jones posted on Threads that as a ‘black millennial kid, nothing in my family was more coveted than a ‘good government job.’ 

That sparked a slew of replies, with one user claiming ‘they’re trying to take the middle class away from blacks so we can revert back to menial labor.’

Another said, ‘this is why the DC area has one of the wealthiest and successful black cohorts in the country, it is because of good government jobs.’

People listen as Everett Kelley, President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Union, during a “Save the Civil Service” rally outside the U.S. Capitol on February 11, 2025 in Washington, DC

President Everett Kelley speaks during the Hands Off! day of action against the Trump administration and Elon Musk on April 05, 2025 in Washington, DC

Dapper Dan Midas (DDm), a Baltimore-based rapper, songwriter, and media personality, started his own thread claiming that there has been an ‘alarming’ rise in black unemployment since Trump took office.

Midas added: ‘300,000 black women have lost their jobs since January.’

Democratic Representative Ayanna Pressley has raised concern about the same issue on Capitol Hill, writing a letter to Fed Chair Jerome Powell. 

‘What I’m calling on the Fed to do is collect the data, to analyze the data and to come up with a plan. 300,000 black women have been pushed out of the labor force in the public and private sector — and that is a crisis,’ Pressley said last month. 

Black women make up 12 percent of the federal workforce, almost double their share of the overall labor force.

Between February and June, 318,000 black women lost their jobs, according to Forbes, which cited the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The reason for the massive employment change is due to a combination of factors, not limited to Trump’s policies.

While it is true that federal layoffs by Elon Musk’s DOGE and the dismantling of DEI programs impacted black women’s jobs, they were also affected by the expiration of pandemic-era supports, which coincided with Trump’s first term, including childcare subsidies.

Comedian Clark Larew Jones posted on Threads that as a ‘black millennial kid, nothing in my family was more coveted than a ‘good government job.’ One response said ‘this is why the DC area has one of the wealthiest and successful black cohorts in the country, it is because of good government jobs.’

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., holds a news conference to highlight how mass federal workforce layoffs and anti-DEI policies by President Donald Trump impact black women and the economy, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025 

The Trump administration has been accused of targeting the black middle class amid the government shutdown

Brittney Cooper, a race and gender professor at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, posted on Threads: ‘You can’t bounce 300,000 black women out of stable jobs without it having a seismic effect on overall black economic stability.’

In total, the federal government workforce is 3 million people, not including another 1.3 million military personnel.

Black women are overrepresented in the government workforce, meaning that the demographic is particularly sensitive to shocks in the federal labor market.  

Brittney Cooper, a race and gender professor at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, posted on Threads: ‘You can’t bounce 300,000 black women out of stable jobs without it having a seismic effect on overall black economic stability.’

In February, a report by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition  (NCRC) noted that the federal hiring freeze implemented by the administration was a threat to ‘a long-standing pathway towards stable, middle-class employment for Black Americans as 19 percent of the federal workforce is Black compared to 13 percent of the overall workforce.’

NCRC’s report also notes that the legacy of federal hiring and retention practices can be seen in helping build the black middle class in the Washington, DC suburbs, particularly in Prince George’s (PG) County, Maryland, just across the river from the nation’s capital.

PG County ‘has consistently been among the wealthiest Black communities in the country,’ per the NCRC’s report.   

Another article posted by the Center for American Progress (CAC) in August notes that ‘black employees made up as much as one-third or more of the staff at agencies such as the Department of Education, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development,’  while calling  the Trump administration’s federal workforce purge an ‘unprecedented assault.’

The shutdown stems from a partisan dispute over health care subsidies for the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, which serve approximately 24 million Americans who don’t have employer-based insurance or public coverage like Medicaid. 

Democrats fear that any budget agreement could be undone through rescissions, a rarely-used presidential power that Trump revived earlier this year to codify spending cuts recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency.

The Senate has held repeated votes on a House-passed continuing resolution, with most Democrats voting against it and Republicans supporting it. But the Senate needs 60 votes to break the stalemate and has not been able to achieve that number. 

Meanwhile, the Republican-led House has remained in recess throughout the entire shutdown and has not held any votes, though Speaker Mike Johnson said the chamber was on 24-hour notice to return if needed. 

The AFGE, the largest union that represents federal workers, split with the Democrats earlier this week in an attempt to get them to end the shutdown by agreeing to the Republican funding proposals. However, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin told CNN Monday that he was ‘not seeing any change in position at this time.’

The president is currently overseas on a diplomatic trip to Asia, further complicating negotiations as the crisis drags on at home.