President Trump is now seeking praise for briefly scheduling a rally on Juneteenth, claiming this made it "very famous."
Trump spoke in a Wall Street Journal interview this week about Juneteenth after he received backlash for scheduling his first rally in months on that day that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States; the rally is also taking place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the 1921 Tulsa race massacre took place. Trump later pushed the rally back a day to June 20th "out of respect for this holiday."
"I did something good: I made Juneteenth very famous," Trump told The Wall Street Journal. "It's actually an important event, an important time. But nobody had ever heard of it."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
According to the Journal, Trump in the interview "said a black Secret Service agent told him the meaning of Juneteenth" and that "he polled many people around him, none of whom had heard of Juneteenth." In an attempt to prove this point that nobody ever heard of the holiday, he even stopped the interview with the Journal to ask an aide if she had. He apparently didn't get the answer he expected, as the aide pointed out that the White House put out a statement on Juneteenth last year; in fact, the Journal notes the White House has done so during every year of Trump's presidency.
"Oh really? We put out a statement? The Trump White House put out a statement?" he said. "Ok, ok. Good."
As CNN's Daniel Dale points out, this is just the latest instance of Trump asserting that most people hadn't heard of something not especially obscure, including once claiming that "nobody ever heard of the word emolument before" and that "few people have ever even heard of" a Category 5 hurricane.
-
5 torch-carrying cartoons about Lady Liberty’s rough weekCartoons Artists take on dark nights, Lady Lineup, and more
-
Could Democrats lose the New Jersey governor’s race?Today’s Big Question Democrat Mikie Sherrill stumbles against Republican Jack Ciattarelli
-
‘Porsche’s luxury credentials are now hanging by a thread’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Trump DOJ indicts New York AG Letitia JamesSpeed Read New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted as Trump’s Justice Department pursues charges against his political opponents
-
Judge blocks Trump’s Guard deployment in ChicagoSpeed Read The president is temporarily blocked from federalizing the Illinois National Guard or deploying any Guard units in the state
-
Trump urges jail for Illinois, Chicago leadersSpeed Read The Texas National Guard begin operations in the Chicago area
-
Bondi stonewalls on Epstein, Comey in Senate face-offSpeed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi denied charges of using the Justice Department in service of Trump’s personal vendettas
-
Court allows Trump’s Texas troops to head to ChicagoSpeed Read Trump is ‘using our service members as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,’ said Gov. J.B. Pritzker
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in OregonSpeed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denialSpeed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartelsspeed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
