President Donald Trump did not formally mark Juneteenth on Thursday, complaining instead that there are “too many non-working holidays,” while his predecessor, Joe Biden, celebrated the occasion at a Black church in Texas.
The split-screen moment showed starkly different approaches to the 160th anniversary of the moment in Texas when Union troops arrived to enforce the end of slavery there.
“Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday without explicitly mentioning Juneteenth.
Earlier in the day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump had no plans to sign a Juneteenth proclamation and indicated it was a normal working day. Trump had issued statements commemorating Juneteenth, before it was a federal holiday, during his first term.
“We’re working 24/7 right now,” she said.
A few hours later, Biden received a warm welcome at the Reedy Chapel AME Church in Galveston, Texas, where he criticized those who seek to “erase our history.”
In 2021, Biden signed legislation that established Juneteenth as a federal holiday in the aftermath of the racial justice protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.
“Some say … it doesn’t deserve to be a federal holiday,” Biden said. “They don’t want to remember.”
He also criticized the Trump administration’s move to rename military bases that were changed under Biden to remove references to Confederates. Trump has said he wants to restore the original names.
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