Trump takes low-key approach on MLK Day
King’s children address president’s hurtful words
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump marked his first Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday Monday largely out of sight, buffeted by accusations that he used a vulgar word to describe African countries and scoffed at the suggestion of admitting more Haitians to the United States.
In Washington, King’s elder son, Martin Luther King III, criticized Trump, saying, “When a president insists that our nation needs more citizens from white states like Norway, I don’t even think we need to spend any time even talking about what it says and what it is.”
He added, “We got to find a way to work on this man’s heart.”
In Atlanta, King’s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, told hundreds of people who packed the pews of the Ebenezer Baptist Church that they “cannot allow the nations of the world to embrace the words that come from our president as a reflection of the true spirit of America.”
“We are one people, one nation, one blood, one destiny. … All of civilization and humanity originated from the soils of Africa,” Bernice King said. “Our collective voice in this hour must always be louder than the one who sometimes does not reflect the legacy of my father.”
Church pastor the Rev. Raphael Warnock also took issue with Trump’s campaign slogan to “Make America Great Again.”
Warnock said he thinks America “is already great … in large measure because of Africa and African people.”
Trump decamped to his Florida estate for the long weekend. On Friday, before he departed the White House, Trump encouraged the public “to observe this day with acts of civic work and community service in honor of Dr. King’s extraordinary life … and his great legacy” as he signed a proclamation recognizing Monday as the national holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader.
Trump dedicated his weekly address to the nation, released Monday, to King.
“Dr. King’s dream is our dream, it is the American dream, it’s the promise stitched into the fabric of our nation, etched into the hearts of our people and written into the soul of humankind,” Trump said in the address, which he tweeted out to his followers.
“It is the dream of a world where people are judged by who they are, not how they look or where they come from,” the president said.
Trump’s low-key King holiday contrasts with how some of his recent
predecessors observed the day.
President Barack Obama and his family performed community service. President George W. Bush accepted a portrait of King for display in the White House from his widow, Coretta Scott King, in 2002.
Trump has appeared with King relatives in the run-up to Monday’s holiday.
Isaac Newton Farris Jr., a nephew, was among the group that attended Friday’s proclamation signing.
Last week in Atlanta, Trump invited King’s niece, Alveda King, aboard Air Force One to watch him sign a bill expanding an existing historic site in the Georgia capital that is dedicated to King.
Trump also keeps a bust of King on display in the Oval Office.