Criticizing Trump


A young, Black conservative leader was fired after his op-ed slamming Trump surfaced.


No, this is not a bad episode of ‘The Apprentice.’ A young, Black conservative has been fired from his job at the Department of Housing and Urban Development because he did not agree with Trump.

Shermichael Singleton, a political appointee at the Department of Housing and Urban Development was fired for an op-ed he wrote before the election that criticized then-candidate Donald Trump, according to CNN.

In an October op-ed for The Hill, Singleton, who was at the time a Republican consultant, said Trump was taking the GOP to a “new moral low.”



“We allowed that hostile takeover to happen on our watch,” he wrote. “This individual recognized a moment of great disparity in the Republican base and, like cancer, attacked and spread, consuming everything in his path.”

Singleton’s piece criticized Trump’s rhetoric about African-Americans during the campaign. After the election, the 26-year-old worked with Ben Carson during his confirmation process to become HUD secretary. Singleton then joined the department as a senior adviser.

But reality struck on Wednesday when he was brought into the chief of staff’s office and fired, a source familiar with the situation told CNN. Singleton was informed that he was being dismissed because of the op-ed and was escorted from the building, according to the source, who also said Carson was surprised by the move and only learned of it after the fact.

A HUD spokesperson confirmed Singleton no longer works at the department.

Singleton declined to comment. The White House and the HUD chief of staff didn’t respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Singleton expressed concerns about Trump in his pre-election op-ed regarding Trump’s approach to addressing issues of high concern to many Black voters.

“Hearing the nominee of my party ignore these harsh truths and opt for words like ‘law and order’ sounds like a coded message from an era in our history that should stay in the past,” Singleton wrote.

In his piece, he added:

“Donald Trump portrays our inner cities is as if they are the ailments of American society and should be exterminated and swiftly removed,” Singleton wrote in the op-ed. “He never mentions the many hardworking, good and honest people who are simply trying the best they can to achieve their share of the American dream.”