Tim Scott Once Backed This Minority Business Program — Now He’s Watching Trump Cut It Loose
The South Carolina senator championed the agency meant to uplift Black entrepreneurs. Now, many say his silence speaks volumes as Trump pushes to dismantle it.
In 2020, Senator Tim Scott stood before the nation to help secure bipartisan support for permanently authorizing the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), a federal program that has long supported minority-owned businesses.
“I am proud to help draft and cosponsor the Reaching America’s Rural Minority Businesses Act, he said, “and I look forward to seeing more minority-owned businesses across the nation.”
It was a historic win—and Scott called it a “milestone for opportunity.”
But now, that agency is under threat of being cut by President Trump. And the senator who once called it essential has yet to respond.
President Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate what he calls the “DEI bureaucracy.” The MBDA is now at the top of that list. Once seen as a breakthrough for communities long excluded from economic opportunity, it’s now being systematically dismantled—while Tim Scott says nothing.
According to Politico, all 50 MBDA employees have either been placed on administrative leave or reassigned within the Department of Commerce.
“They are watching this happen, and they are doing nothing,” one Commerce Department employee told Politico. “That’s cowardice. And it cuts especially deep when the people you once believed were your champions turn their backs in silence.”
The timing is pointed. Trump’s 2025 campaign has doubled down on culture war rhetoric, painting diversity efforts as “anti-white” and promising to eliminate all non-essential equity programs on “day one.” The MBDA, despite being codified into law, has been quietly dismantled within.
Why the MBDA Mattered—Especially in the South
Founded in 1969, the MBDA was established to help minority business owners overcome barriers to accessing capital, contracts, and business growth. But for decades, it had operated as a small, underfunded program—until Scott and others pushed for it to become permanent.
The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act included bipartisan provisions co-authored by Scott to expand the agency’s reach, establish rural business centers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and support rural and Southern entrepreneurs.
“By having more MBDAs located around the country, especially in rural areas, you’ll bring expertise to those would-be entrepreneurs and you’ll better equip them for success,” he said at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event in 2020.
In South Carolina, Scott’s home state, Black entrepreneurs make up over 22% of minority-owned businesses, yet they still face immense disparities in financing and federal contracting opportunities. The MBDA was designed to change that.
And during the COVID-19 pandemic, Scott helped secure $10 million in emergency funds to connect minority-owned businesses to Paycheck Protection Program resources, many of which had initially bypassed Black entrepreneurs. He often spoke of barbershops, beauty salons, and landscaping businesses in the Black community as cornerstones of economic life.
But now, as the agency faces an uncertain future, those very businesses may lose access to the programs Scott once promised to champion.
A Turning Point—Or a Turning Away?
Scott’s legacy is…layered. He’s the first Black Republican senator from South Carolina—a state where Black economic power has long been suppressed by law and by policy. His personal story, rising from poverty in North Charleston to the U.S. Senate, made him a compelling advocate for “opportunity zones” and access-to-capital programs.
But for many, his silence in this moment tells a different story.
What happens when the same people who helped build a bridge to economic equity suddenly stop defending it?
The MBDA has never been perfect. It has long operated on minimal resources and faced limited reach in rural Southern communities. But it symbolized the federal government’s recognition that equity demands more than words—but a working system. If the agency dissolves under Trump, it will not just mark the loss of a program. It will mark the loss of a promise to rural Black business owners, first-time entrepreneurs, and communities that believed they were finally being seen.
Will Senator Scott speak up to defend the agency he helped build—or stay silent to preserve the narrative that America was never broken to begin with?
Will he choose truth—or Trump?
13 & South is a new publication covering news, investigative stories, and insights on social justice, policy, and systemic inequities impacting Southern Black communities. I value your insights, and feedback and invite your perspectives to contribute to future issues. Please feel free to contact me here or follow me on my socials! LinkedIn, Twitter, IG, BlueSky, and Threads.