On Thursday, Winston-Salem State alumnus and SiriusXM host Stephen A. Smith aired an exclusive interview with President Donald Trump. The interview followed Smith's visit to the White House to have dinner with Trump alongside Bill Maher and Kid Rock, where he said he spoke about HBCUs.
HBCUs were once again censored in the conversation between Smith and Trump, this time during the interview where Trump discussed what he believes were his achievements that benefited the Black community during his administration. Smith opened the interview by telling Trump he had just done a show at Tuskegee University, and he thanked him for eliminating HBCU debt a few years ago, a figure Smith put at “$1.6 billion at least.” Trump thanked him and moved on. Later, when Smith asked what Trump had done for Black Americans, Trump said he “saved the historically Black colleges and universities. They were out of business.”
Reading from a list, he said his administration “awarded a record one-time investment of $438 million” to HBCUs, that the Department of Education announced another $174 million in September 2026, and that this brought the total to “more than $612 million over a two-year period.” He also said he signed an executive order that brought the White House HBCU initiative back to the White House, and that he has a board of advisors made up of HBCU presidents.
Smith responded with numbers of his own. He told Trump that Barack Obama's administration provided billions of dollars to HBCUs starting in 2009, that Trump's 2019 funding was about $1.9 billion, and that Joe Biden “did over $17 billion when you take everything into account.” Smith also reminded Trump that the FUTURE Act amounts to $255 million per year. Trump replied that Obama and Biden “did nothing” for HBCUs.
The Fact Check
1) HBCU Funding across administrations
The FUTURE Act, signed in 2019, made roughly $255 million a year in funding for minority-serving institutions permanent, with about $85 million of that for HBCUs through Title III. Before the law, that stream had to be renewed by Congress. A 2020 PolitiFact review rated a similar claim that Trump “saved” HBCUs Mostly False, noting that HBCUs received Title III funding every year under Obama, and that total federal funding to HBCUs ranged from roughly $1.8 billion to $2.4 billion a year during the Obama years, peaking in 2009-10.
The Biden administration reported its own total in May 2024, when the White House announced a record of more than $16 billion in federal support for HBCUs across fiscal years 2021 through 2024, up from a previously announced $7 billion. The administration described it as a cumulative figure, and it combines several kinds of money: about $4 billion in COVID relief, $2.6 billion from the Department of Education for institutional capacity, $1.6 billion in capital financing debt relief for 45 HBCUs, and more than $4 billion in student aid and veterans' education benefits for students at HBCUs, along with research and STEM grants and federal contracts. Because it includes student aid and debt relief and covers several years, it is not directly comparable to a single year's appropriation.
The more recent funding Trump cited came in 2025. CNN reported in October 2025 that the administration promised a one-time additional $495 million to HBCUs and tribal colleges, which the Education Department said was a 50 percent increase over the anticipated fiscal year 2025 allotment. The same report said the administration cut $350 million from other grants, mostly programs for Hispanic-Serving Institutions.
2) The White House Initiative on HBCUs
On the White House HBCU initiative, Trump signed an executive order in February 2017 moving it from the Department of Education to the White House. President Biden moved it back to the Department of Education, and Trump signed a new executive order in April 2025 bringing it back to the White House.
Article Continues BelowBiden also had his own President's Board of Advisors on HBCUs, led by Delaware State president Dr. Tony Allen and then-Tennessee State University President Dr. Glenda Glover. President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris regularly hosted HBCU presidents at the White House.
3) Are HBCUs failing?
On the question of HBCUs being close to failing, advocates describe a more long-term problem. Lodriguez Murray of the UNCF told CNN that HBCUs “have been underfunded since their inception,” and advocates note that their endowments are far smaller than those at predominantly white institutions.
However, HBCUs have seen a surge in enrollment since 2020 and remain in operation across the country.