To mark Juneteenth — a federal holiday when many businesses close — President Donald Trump took to social media to gripe about workers allegedly not wanting “too many non-working holidays.”
On his Truth Social platform, Trump pushed a narrative that America’s non-working holidays cost the “country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS” and the workers aren’t too fond of that. “Too many non-working holidays in America. 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 working day of the year,” he wrote.
“It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
His tone is a vast change from when he sat in the White House for his first term. In 2020, Trump took credit for making Juneteenth — the oldest celebration of the end of slavery in the U.S. since 1865 — “very famous.” He once claimed that “nobody had ever heard of it” while the country was ailing in civil unrest following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.
During the White House press briefing held on the holiday
, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that it was unlikely her boss was going to mark the federal holiday, boasting that everyone showed up for work. “I’m not tracking his signature on a proclamation today,” Leavitt said.“I know this is a federal holiday — I want to thank all of you for showing up to work. We are certainly here, we’re working 24/7 right now.”
He even pledged to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, but that didn’t happen until his successor, Joe Biden, stepped in and made it so in 2021.
Biden had a different approach to celebrating the holiday. During a speech at a historically Black church in Juneteenth’s birthplace, Galveston, Texas, according to The Hill, the former Democratic president took pride in seeing the holiday for what it was — telling the truth about the history of this country. “I took the view as president, we need to be honest about our history — especially in the face of ongoing efforts to erase our history,” he said.
He touched on such efforts being Trump wanting to reinstate names to military bases related to Confederate leaders. “I played a role in changing names of all those military camps with names tied to slavery,” Biden said. “What are they doing now? Reinstating those names.”
“Folks, darkness can hide much but can erase nothing, and only with truth can come justice and healing.”
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