Trump Officials Accused of Rigging Civics Contest Against Sikh Finalist

The family of 15-year-old Aangad Singh, a Sikh high school student from Connecticut, alleges he was unfairly eliminated from the Trump administration's Presidential 1776 Award civics competition due to his religious background and visible turban. Singh reached the final eight in Washington, D.C., but was not among the three white winners. After the televised broadcast, Singh and his family discovered that several of his correct answers—including identifying the 13th Amendment and federal court jurisdiction under Article 3—were marked wrong. Other contestants expressed shock at his elimination. The Department of Education refused to release final scores, citing proprietary information, and later stated that judges' decisions were final and binding. The winners included a homeschooled girl later touted for culture war propaganda and a student who expressed interest in attending conservative Hillsdale College. The family has received no response to their inquiries, and the independent judging foundation has not commented.