Despite the United States’ Black population’s overwhelming disapproval of President Donald Trump and his policies, he’s still trying to win us over.

His latest attempt came when he met with the leaders of over a dozen different historically black colleges and universities in the Oval Office on Monday.President Trump began promising that he’d assist HBCUs earlier in Black History Month and many grew suspicious of his promises. It appeared that he was using HBCU’s as a way to try and sway the Black population while using academic leaders for a photo-op. That’s exactly what happened.

After Trump posed for a photo surrounded by dozens of HBCU presidents, the public was quick to point out how they’d essentially been used as props and won’t have anything to show for it as the president looks to cut funding that helps a lot of students attend these institutions in the first place.

In response, Dillard University president Walter Kimbrough released a statement detailing how ineffective the meeting actually was. In reality, the respective presidents were actually at the White House to meet with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, but the schedule was promptly thrown out for a short meeting with Trump where practically no one got to speak for more than a couple minutes.

“I’m still processing that entire experience. But needless to say that threw the day off and there was very little listening to HBCU presidents today- we were only given about 2 minutes each, and that was cut to one minute, so only about 7 of maybe 15 or so speakers were given an opportunity today,” Kimbrough wrote.

Meanwhile, the White House is still using the meeting as a way to prove that the Trump Administration has the best intentions in mind for HBCU’s before he signs an executive order in the next few days.

“You deserve far more credit than you get, and know that beginning today, this administration is committed to making sure that our historically black colleges and universities get the credit and the attention they deserve,” said Vice President Mike Pence.

The jig is up, though. Some of the people in this vastly circulated picture may have gone to try and build a bridge for the future, but they all ended up being used with nothing to show for it.

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