Five years ago this week, Donald Trump sat down with The Wall Street Journal and appeared to take credit for public recognition of Juneteenth, which honors the end of slavery in the United States. “I did something good: I made Juneteenth very famous,” the president said, patting himself on the back. “It’s actually an important event, an important time. But nobody had ever heard of it.”
This was, of course, utterly absurd. Generations of Black Americans had celebrated Juneteenth long before Trump began his political career. But the Republican, apparently eager to try to score some political points during his ill-fated 2020 re-election campaign, nevertheless wanted some credit for public awareness of Juneteenth and its national significance.
In fact, during the interview with the Journal, after claiming that “nobody had ever heard of” Juneteenth, the president paused to ask an aide if she’d heard of it. The staffer replied that the White House had issued an official statement commemorating the day each year of his presidency.
“Oh really? We put out a statement? The Trump White House put out a statement?” he asked. “OK, OK. Good.”
Five years later, it’s apparently no longer “good.” The New York Times reported:
Juneteenth, the holiday that marks the end of slavery in the United States, has been celebrated at the White House each June 19 since it was enshrined into law four years ago. But on Thursday, it went unmarked by the president — except for a post on social media in which he said he would get rid of some ‘non-working holidays.’
In the Republican’s first term — before Joe Biden made Juneteenth an official federal holiday in 2021 — the Trump White House issued a proclamation honoring the day every year in mid-June. This year, amid an aggressive partisan campaign against anything that’s even tangentially related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and as the administration takes indefensible steps to bury Black history, the Trump White House couldn’t be bothered to even acknowledge the existence of the holiday.
After a day in which the president used his social media platform to comment on all sorts of matters, none of which had anything to do with Juneteenth, he seemed to take note of the day in the early evening. “Too many non-working holidays in America,” Trump wrote. “It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don’t want it either! Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once [sic] working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Or put another way, the president who’s spent an inordinate amount of his second term golfing at Trump-owned properties was annoyed to discover that many Americans failed to work on a national holiday that he used to recognize as important.
As Election Day 2020 approached, Trump unveiled what he labeled the “Platinum Plan” for Black voters, outlining a series of goals for his second term, which included making Juneteenth a federal holiday. But after Biden did what Trump only talked about, the Republican apparently lost interest.
For his part, the former Democratic president delivered Juneteenth remarks at the historic Reedy Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Galveston, Texas. “I don’t come here today to only commemorate the past. I come here because we know the good Lord isn’t done with us yet,” Biden said, adding, “We have work to do. We need to keep pushing America forward.”
These were the kind of comments the incumbent president could’ve made, but didn’t.
