Prairie State Wire

Steve Cortes, president of the League of American Workers, said that race relations deteriorated under Barack Obama's presidency. This statement was made during an interview with the Prairie State Wire.

"Don't you think he regularly made it about him?" asked Cortes. "And the stats show it, that 54% of Americans felt like, under Obama, that race relations worsened. We elect our first black man, and it makes race relations worse. I think he's part of why, a big part of why things got worse racially when he was president."

Barack Obama’s 2008 election was initially seen as a milestone toward a "post-racial" America. However, his presidency coincided with renewed racial tensions following incidents such as the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, as well as the Charleston church shooting. These events fueled national debates on systemic racism and policing, highlighting deep divisions that persisted beyond his presidency. According to Le Monde, hopes for racial unity gave way to ongoing challenges in U.S. race relations.

A 2019 Pew Research Center survey found that 37% of Americans believed Obama made progress on race relations, while 27% felt he tried but failed, and 25% thought he worsened them. In comparison, only 15% said Donald Trump improved race relations, whereas 56% said he worsened them. This polling underscores mixed views on Obama’s legacy concerning race despite his historic presidency.

Gallup reported in 2025 that Americans rated George W. Bush more positively than Obama, Trump, or Biden regarding progress on race relations, with Trump receiving the lowest marks. These findings suggest public views on racial progress have declined over time, reflecting skepticism about recent leaders’ effectiveness in bridging racial divides.

Cortes is a financial markets strategist who spent 25 years trading global assets before becoming Chief Strategist at BGC Partners. He built a media profile through appearances on CNBC, Fox News, and CNN before serving as a senior spokesman for Donald Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns and later as a spokesman for Ron DeSantis’s 2024 Political Action Committee (PAC). According to Key Speakers Bureau, he now serves as president of the League of American Workers.