As Trump Goes to War With Iran, Black Americans Will Pay the Price

Many Americans were shocked to wake up on Feb. 28 to the news that President Donald Trump decided to join Israel in attacking Iran. Trump justified the attack to the American people as a preventative strike designed to eliminate an “eminent threat” to the United States, but as his address to the nation contradicted a 2025 federal government assessment that revealed Iran was nowhere near having the ability to wage a nuclear attack on the country,

Lies have long been a tool that this President and his cohorts use to further their racist agenda. Immigrants continue to be a favorite target: Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH were never eating their neighbors’ pets, the Federal Emergency Management Agency didn’t spend disaster relief money to house undocumented people, worldwide incarceration populations didn’t drop because countries illegally sent their prisoners here, 21 million immigrants didn’t cross the border during Joe Biden’s presidency, there was never an ‘immigrant crime wave’ before, during or after Biden’s term.

Trump has told hundreds of lies, many repeatedly, while running for and holding office, according to the Polifact website.

This is not lying because the facts were unknown. This is lying as administrative policy, the creation and use of lies to legitimize the President’s raggedy leadership.

Now, he and his minions are lying about Iran.

Let’s be clear. The theocracy that has ruled that once-prosperous nation is pretty reprehensible. Like Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei – killed in a bombing during the first hours of the current conflict – brutalized his countrymen. We still don’t and may never know how many Iranians died in January during countrywide protests calling for democratic reforms.

But listening to Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s puttering explanations for killing people – that Iran was about to attack the most powerful nation on the planet – forces a mental reckoning.

We’re about to see the cost of lies in real time.

The specter of war with Iran raises profound questions about fairness and representation, particularly for Black Americans, many of whom did not support the administration’s initiation of the conflict. The burden of military service, and the ultimate sacrifice, often falls disproportionately on young Black men and women who serve in the armed forces. Twenty-one percent of US Army personnel are African American, over 350,000 active and reserve members across all military branches.

For those Black citizens who voted against the current leadership, the prospect of their children, relatives, or community members being deployed to a war they fundamentally opposed creates a deep sense of injustice. They face the grim reality that their tax dollars, their country’s policies, and their family’s lives are being committed to a conflict that does not reflect their political will.

Beyond the direct military impact, war-driven economic shocks, such as rapidly escalating gas prices and general inflation, disproportionately harm Black communities. Due to historical and systemic economic disparities, Black Americans often have less disposable income and fewer financial cushions to absorb sudden increases in the cost of living. Higher gas prices place a greater strain on household budgets, especially for those who rely on personal vehicles for essential travel to work or school in areas with inadequate public transit. This added financial pressure intensifies the sense of injustice, as they bear the economic consequences of a conflict they opposed, further compounding existing economic vulnerability.

It is criminal that Trump and his people, who enjoy the best this country and world have to offer, choose to lead through lies.

Our nation, our world, is paying the price of their deceit.