Watch: Trump hosts Black History Month reception at White House after anti-DEI order

Warning: the following livestream has not been independently fact-checked and may contain misinformation. The Independent strives to counteract misinformation across its platforms.

Watch as Donald Trump hosts a Black History Month reception at the White House on Thursday, 20 February.

The event came after the president signed an executive order ending the federal government’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, which has disrupted Black History Month's observance elsewhere in the government.

Mr Trump has called DEI programs “discrimination” and pushed to eradicate diversity programs from the government, directing that DEI workers eventually be laid off and exerting similar pressure on the private sector to shift to an exclusive focus on merit.

The president will be joined in the East Room by Black political figures and activists who have been vocal supporters of him including Alveda King, a niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, and Herschel Walker, the football legend who is Mr Trump’s choice as US ambassador to the Bahamas, according to a White House official.