As Americans celebrated Juneteenth on Thursday, Donald Trump complained that there are too many federal holidays.
Trump wrote on Truth Social, “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. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Federal offices, banks and financial markets were closed. As of last year, 30 states also recognized it as a holiday, according to the Congressional Research Service.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, Trump promised to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, according to Reuters. He also recognized it via official White House statements.
But none was forthcoming today. Asked at the White House briefing whether the president planned to commemorate the holiday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “I’m not tracking his signature on a proclamation today. I know this is a federal holiday. I want to thank all of you for showing up to work. We are certainly here. We are working 24/7 right now.”
Juneteenth marks the end of slavery, with the date chosen because June 19, 1865 was when Union troops informed Black people in Galveston, Texas of their freedom.
President Joe Biden signed legislation in 2021 establishing the date as a federal holiday, after a bill passed overwhelmingly in Congress. In the Senate, its two lead sponsors were from both parties, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). Before the bill, the last new federal holiday was Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983.
In his second term, Trump has attacked diversity, equity and inclusion programs, signing an executive order to end policies across the federal government. His FCC chair, Brendan Carr, has even launched investigations of major media companies like Disney and Comcast over their DEI policies, claiming it may be “invidious discrimination.”
