Featured Image Credit: SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, US News
Phoebe Tonks
President Donald Trump has posted a last minute message recognising Martin Luther King Jr Day, after he was publicly slammed by critics for staying silent about the holiday for much of the day.
Every sitting US President has honoured the late civil rights activist on the annual holiday since its inception back in 1983, yet many had feared Trump would become the first in history not to mark the occasion this year.
Earlier on Monday, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other civil rights organizations described Trump's silence as a deliberate decision not to honor King.
And it is this backlash which may have prompted the President’s last-minute tribute to the late civil rights activist.
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After spending much of the day talking about everything other than MLK, the president finally honored the occasion shortly after 8pm EST, when he broke his silence with a formal message that appeared on the White House website.
In the 400 word message, Trump recognised the federal holiday and spoke of Martin Luther King Jr’s accomplishment at pioneering a ‘movement that would go on to triumphantly reaffirm our national conviction that every man, woman, and child is endowed by their Creator with rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. ‘
Notably however, the announcement contained no reference to MLK’s advocacy work for Black Americans or his tireless campaigning for equality and the end of racial segregation.
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It also marked a stark deviation from the administration’s current stance of decrying racial diversity and attempts to weaken federal civil rights law.
The tribute post also comes just days after Trump slammed the 1964 Civil Rights Act which sought to eliminate race based discrimination, and claimed that it ‘hurt a lot of people’.
He also previously claimed that the implementation of these civil rights policies, which were designed to provide Black American with equal access to education and employment resulted in white people being ‘very badly treated’ and branded it ‘reverse discrimination.’
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His recent attempts at policy change have also directly opposed the very hard fought equality MLK had championed, such as Trump’s attempts to restrict the guarantee of birthright citizenship by the 14th Amendment and the introduction of immigration policies that treat non-English accents and non-white ethnicity as valid reasons for stops.
In December, at his instruction the National Parks Service also announced it will no longer offer free admission to parks on King Day and Juneteenth, but instead on Flag Day and Trump's birthday.