President Donald Trump’s unapologetic, yet unsurprising, decision to disregard Juneteenth this year did not go unnoticed.
In the past week, the president issued proclamations honoring days such as Father’s Day and Flag Day and National Flag Week, but he stopped short of recognizing — in any capacity — the newest federal holiday, Juneteenth, which celebrates the ending of chattel slavery in America. His decision not to issue a proclamation, or even an official statement about the important date, is quite the reversal from previous statements he’s made about Juneteenth.
Trump issued statements commemorating Juneteenth each year during his first term as president. In 2020, he campaigned to make it a federal holiday, even claiming at the time that he made the day “very famous” — despite the fact that Black Americans have been celebrating Juneteenth for generations, and that the day has been recognized by states across the U.S. for decades. Congress passed bipartisan legislation in 2021 to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday, and it was enshrined into law by former President Joe Biden.
Instead of honoring Juneteenth this year, Trump opted to complain on social media that Americans have “too many non-working holidays.”
Deepak Sarma, inaugural distinguished scholar in the public humanities at Case Western Reserve University, told HuffPost that Trump’s reversal on Juneteenth this year shows that his political strategies embrace “cruelty,” and that he employed a “bait-and-switch” in an attempt to woo Black supporters.
Trump is “appealing only to his MAGA constituents, many of whom were covert, and now are overt, racists,” and he has discarded the concerns of his Black supporters, Sarma said. (Trump made inroads with Black voters in the 2024 presidential election, but Black voters still overwhelmingly voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris.)
“This is consistent with his Machiavellian political philosophy, which embraces deception, cruelty and immorality to achieving his selfish goals,” Sarma said about the president. ”[Rejecting] DEI, embracing pro-life, utilizing ICE, are all ways to cater to MAGA voters.”
And Sarma thinks that this proves it’s “only a matter of time before he discards MAGA supporters and their concerns.” They said Trump is already doing this with his policies on issues like Medicaid and Social Security. Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” would leave about 10.9 million more people without health insurance, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Sarma said some MAGA supporters are beginning to recognize that these policies are “not in their favor.”
Juneteenth commemorates a piece of history that shouldn’t be erased.
On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform Black enslaved people of their freedom after the end of the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation had been signed two years prior in 1863, but in reality, the horrific system of slavery continued in the deep parts of the Confederacy. June 19 has been commemorated to recognize when more than 250,000 enslaved people were informed of their freedom (though slavery did not immediately end everywhere on that date.)
For years, Juneteenth has been celebrated across the U.S. with parades, cookouts and various gatherings. Trump’s decision not to honor Juneteenth this year fits with his ongoing crusade in his second term against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and what he views as “critical race theory.”
The Black History Month proclamation he issued earlier this year was noticeably sanitized with no mention of the legacy of slavery or America’s history of racial inequities and discrimination against Black people.
Portia Allen-Kyle, a civil rights attorney and interim executive director at the racial justice organization Color Of Change, emphasized in a previous interview with HuffPost that the erasure of Black people’s experiences in U.S. history is incredibly dangerous.
“History isn’t just what happened — it’s often a guiding light to what we’re witnessing in the present and how we can use those learnings to build a future that doesn’t repeat the same mistakes,” she said.
Many MAGA supporters wish to “rewrite American history,” Sarma says.
Sarma believes many Trump and MAGA supporters are hoping to rewrite American history and “deny the enslavement of African people, and to reinstate white supremacy.”
“Recognizing Juneteenth is a critical reminder of the depravity and cruelty of some human behavior and a distressing, but necessary, deterrent,” they added.
Shaun Harper, a professor of education, business and public policy at the University of Southern California, said that he was “not at all surprised” by Trump’s decision to disregard Juneteenth this year and that “few Black Americans are interested in obligatory Juneteenth, Martin Luther King Day, and Black History Month greetings from a president who has an unacceptably low number of Black people in his cabinet.”
“Trump has signed executive orders that severely limit the teaching of Black topics in schools, fired thousands of innocent Black federal workers, and eliminated policies and programs that ensure the equitable advancement of Black professionals across industries,” Harper continued. “Frankly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had issued an executive order yesterday canceling Juneteenth, especially since it became a federal holiday during Joe Biden’s presidency.”
Sarma said that fighting back against the Trump administration’s anti-DEI crusade is “becoming increasingly harder.”
“First Amendment rights are reducing rapidly,” they said. “Trump and his minions have suggested that speaking up against the government is a crime and should be quelled.”
“In case it becomes impossible to do so, communities can and should always continue to preserve their histories, books about their histories, digital data and so on,” they continued. “Ray Bradbury offers a suggestion in ‘Fahrenheit 451’ that we ought to consider today, namely, to memorizing books and knowledge. It may soon become the only way to preserve history, to preserve heritage, and to prevent atrocities.”
Read the full article here
