Trump Officials Accused of Rigging High School 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 selected among the three white winners. After the competition was televised, Singh and his family discovered that several of his correct answers—including identifying federal court jurisdictions under Article 3 and naming the 13th Amendment—had been marked wrong. 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 not received a response to their inquiries.