Former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, ““President Joe Biden and every living President-except Donald Trump – are direct descendants of slaveholders: Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and – through his white mother’s side – Barack Obama…” Reuters. I hope that every African American in our Country is reading this right now. REMEMBER!”
Former President Trump is the only living current or living former U.S. president who is not descended from slaveholders, according to a Tuesday report from Reuters.
The report detailed the ancestry of America’s leaders as of the 117th Congress. The report found that five living presidents, two Supreme Court justices, 11 governors and 100 members of Congress had ancestors who owned slaves.
Presidents Biden, Carter, George W. Bush, Clinton and Obama all have ancestors who enslaved Black people in their family trees, according to the report, with Obama’s link coming from his White mother’s side. Meanwhile, Trump’s family did not immigrate to the U.S. until after slavery was abolished.
In Congress, Reuters found at least 100 lawmakers who could trace their family trees to slaveholders, including 28 senators and 72 representatives.
Prominent names included Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and James Lankford, R-Okla., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.At the Supreme Court, only Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch had slaveholding ancestors. Meanwhile, another recent report from the Washington Post found that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had ancestors who were enslaved, while her husband, Patrick Jackson, has ancestors who were slaveholders.
