President Trump kicked off February by inviting leaders from the black community to the White House to engage in dialogue and hash out solutions. Day one of Black History Month was the perfect time to dive into what he vowed while on the campaign trail: address the needs within communities of color.

The “forgotten man and woman” was a recurring Trump theme in the 2016 election. One could make the case that despite the obvious irony, no group was as forgotten during the last eight years as black Americans, many of whom find themselves living in violent Chicago neighborhoods, lacking employment, or trapped in failing schools. Trump has surrounded himself with people he trusts to provide guidance and effect positive change.

Reflecting on former President Barack Obama reveals someone seemingly unmoved by the ills one might argue should have naturally been among his top priorities. But the black community remained forgotten even to Obama, the first black president. In 2011, Rep. Maxine Waters, certainly an Obama fan, publicly questioned why his jobs bus tour, for example, steered clear of the black community.

In an interview with CNN in 2011, Waters spoke of Obama’s tour through Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois by saying, “He went to rural communities and he went with a plan … to invest money in those rural communities in order to develop jobs.” The representative added, “We want the rural poor to be attended to. But we also want the urban poor to be attended to.”

That was not Obama’s game plan. “We don’t know what the strategy is,” Waters lamented. “We don’t know why, on this trip that he’s on in the United States, he’s not in the black community.” Lest I be misunderstood, let me emphasize the obvious: Obama was not elected to be president of black America. He was elected to be president of all of America, so I am not suggesting that he should have made the black community his sole focus. What I am saying is it should have been some of his focus. Legitimizing Black Lives Matters and wasting time with Al Sharpton don’t count. I’m talking about delving into real solutions for real needs, such as the war zone in his own Chicago back yard or the scarcity of school choice, which he helped create by axing the successful D.C. school voucher program that benefitted minority students. Sadly, Obama was more passionate about climate change than changing the climate of his own community.

President Trump, on the other hand, has gotten right to work. As he met with leaders in the White House on February 1, surely he expected criticism. The media did not disappoint, lambasting the president’s comments about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass and questioning if Trump even knew who the latter was. Perhaps the most demeaning attack was waged not against Trump, but against those who gathered at the White House to meet with him. Writer and television host Touré tweeted, “There was not one person I would consider an African-American leader at Trump’s ‘Trump Listens To Black Employees And supporters’ thingy”:

There was not one person I would consider an African-American leader at Trump’s “Trump Listens To Black Employees And supporters” thingy. — Touré (@Toure) February 1, 2017

And there it is, the left’s modus operandi: the Black Police investigates and then relegates anyone who gets out of line as not authentically black. This form of racism, where every black person is expected to think as they are told, to speak what they are told, and to vote like they are told is rampant on the left. Anyone who dares to wander off the left’s plantation is fair game.

The country now has a president committed to education, law and order, and jobs. Nonetheless, when he reached out to help, instead of being grateful, some graded the fluidity of his comments, the motives behind his methods, and the guests inside the room. Had Trump not ever reached out, had he simply failed to acknowledge Black History Month, folks would accuse him of not caring, call him elitist, or add it to their reasons for deeming him racist. And therein lies one reason the black community remains in the shape we’re in. We demonize those who want to help, then complain about not being helped. Someone once said, “You can’t win for losing.” Trump disagrees. America, he says, will win—and win so often, we’re going to get tired of winning! Hyperbole, of course, but he’s taking steps in that direction, the effects of which we will all enjoy; you know what they say about a rising tide. It’s inspiring to see that our new president’s commitment to Make (all of) America Great Again was not just a campaign slogan.

It’s too bad that the same Maxine Waters who expressed disappointment in Obama for not meeting with people in the black community won’t meet with President Trump, who is meeting with people in the black community—because it sounds like he’s just the kind of president she’s been wanting.