President Donald Trump lamented the number of holidays in America in a post on Juneteenth evening.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier Thursday that Trump would not commemorate Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, and was established as a federal holiday by former President Joe Biden in 2021.
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“Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed,” he posted on Truth Social. “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!”
“I’m not tracking his signature on a proclamation today,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday of Trump. “I know this is a federal holiday. I want to thank all of you for showing up to work. We are certainly here. We’re working 24/7 right now.”
Trump said in 2021 that he made Juneteenth “very famous.”
“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.”
While the White House did not celebrate Juneteenth, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley did release a statement. “On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to proclaim the end of slavery, delivering on the promise of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation,” he wrote. “Juneteenth stands as a defining moment in our nation’s history as a celebration of liberty and a declaration of our God-given equality. 160 years later, this day serves as a clear reminder that unity and liberty are at the core of what it means to be American.”
Biden celebrated the holiday in Galveston, Texas, at Reedy Chapel AME Church.
Trump has not said he would end Juneteenth as a holiday, though he has slammed diversity initiatives within the federal government and elsewhere.
WHITE HOUSE LISTS NO JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION PLANS FOR TRUMP
Earlier this year, Trump said he plans to add holidays celebrating the end of World War I and World War II on May 8 and Nov. 11, respectively. He also said then that there are too many holidays.
“We will not be closing the Country for these two very important Holidays, November 11 and May 8, World War I and World War II, because we already have too many Holidays in America,” he wrote. “There are not enough days left in the year. We were Workers then, and we are Workers now!”