COMMENTARY: The Politics of Trump’s Continuing Disdain for MLK Day
By Professor David L. Horne, founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan-African Public Policy and Ethical Institute
The regular celebration of MLK Day in the U.S. was not only marred a bit this year by youth-led violence in several cities, including a mass fight in L.A.’s Leimert Park after the annual parade, but it was also again disrespected by current POTUS Donald Trump, who regularly tries to show disrespect for any Black achievement.
Although this was the 40th anniversary of the MLK Day celebrations, Trump waited until the end of the day, Monday, to belatedly issue the standard presidential recognition of the holiday, and unlike presidents before him, he attended no MLK events, nor did he bother with encouraging Americans to celebrate and emulate Dr. King’s examples of working together to accomplish American greatness through peace and love.
He simply went back to his Florida digs at Mar-a-Lago for another vacation.
He did order the National Park Service not to allow visitors in for free during the day; however, this is contrary to park traditions on all federal holidays.
Also, Trump continued his public attempts to disrespect recognition of public significance for Black achievements in American history. Similarly, for example, he has changed White House acknowledgements of important contributions by former POTUS Barack Obama.
Trump has carefully removed the official White House portraits of Obama—and also George Bush—and put them in out-of-the-way places, and he has manufactured insulting public caricatures of Obama and other former presidents Trump does not like.
The elders in the Black community would say (and have said) that “God don’t like ugly” and that Trump is really “cruisin’ for a bruisin’ in God’s eyes.”
Anyway, probably the best we can say about MLK Day, 2026, is that it did occur and that millions of people properly celebrated it, in spite of…
God doesn’t like ugly… We have to agree. We just know there’s a Trump reckoning coming. And it isn’t too far away.
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan-African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank, which still operates and meets every fourth Friday.
