I can start the week with some good news. On Friday, when President Trump signed the big appropriations bill keeping the federal government open, he included a presidential signing statement. Here’s the last paragraph:

My Administration shall treat provisions that allocate benefits on the basis of race, ethnicity, and gender . . . in a manner consistent with the requirement to afford equal protection of the laws under the Due Process Clause of the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment.

The ellipsis is a list of examples of the federal programs the president has in mind, including minority contracting and subcontracting; preferred treatment for Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Native Alaskans; women in the workforce; and historically black colleges and universities.

Now, of course the key will be what this administration decides is the scope of the Constitution’s equal-protection guarantee when it comes to politically correct discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, and sex. But it’s heartening that the issue has at least been flagged. And likely it was flagged by the Justice Department — and the bigger its role in this area, under the leadership of Jeff Sessions and the other solid appointments being made there, the better.

The people in the Rust Belt and elsewhere who voted for Donald Trump will be betrayed if, when the jobs, contracts, and other opportunities start coming back, they are told that the federal government plays favorites on the basis of skin color, national origin, and sex in allocating them.