Donald Trump delivered a good example of disingenuousness with his late recognition of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday on Monday.
He called on Americans to “recommit themselves to Dr. King’s dream.” The proclamation did not come until the end of the day, and only after a deluge of criticism from the NAACP and other civil rights groups. Derrick Johnson, national president of the NAACP, released a statement that said, “Donald Trump has zero interest in uniting this country or recognizing its history and diversity.” Moreover, Johnson added, “he wants to pit against each other so that we won’t pay attention to the fact that his net worth has more than doubled while families lose their health care and access to essential services.”
Johnson could have extended his critique to include a raft of distractions, but his point was spot on. Trump’s outrageous interest in gaining control of Greenland, his threat to invoke the Insurrection Act, to say nothing of the 1,500 National Guard soldiers ready to be deployed to Minneapolis and anywhere else; his manic impulse overall.
And no doubt, he’s gloating this morning upon learning that a judge will allow his administration to block lawmakers’ access to ICE facilities. Thus, our situation remains in a quandary — a pattern of one step forward and then two steps back when understanding the “Trump world order.”
Many of Trump’s moves on tariffs, deportation, and the obfuscation of the Epstein files are directly related to this year’s midterm elections. The hope for those elections becomes bleaker each day, particularly with the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Louisiana v. Callais case hanging in the balance. We have never been more in need of Dr. King’s inspiration.