Trump is at odds with MLK’s legacy, leaders say
ATLANTA — The first Martin Luther King Jr. holiday of Donald Trump’s presidency is taking place amid a racial firestorm of Trump’s own making.
In the same week that he honored King by making a national park out of the ground where King was born and preached until his death, Trump denigrated practically the entire African diaspora, and left many Americans convinced that the leader of their country is a racist.
Trump has denied being racist, labeling himself the “least racist person there is” during his 2016 campaign. He began last week by designating the historic site around King’s Atlanta birth home as a national park. By week’s end, Trump was signing a King holiday proclamation with the martyred activist’s nephew at his side.
But in between, the president sat in a White House meeting on immigration policy and denigrated much of the African diaspora as “shithole countries” while expressing a preference for immigrants from Norway, a majority white nation.
This is the type of thing, activists, religious leaders and scholars say, that puts Trump’s presidency in direct conflict with the legacy of King, who was assassinated April 4, 1968, while trying to make America a more inclusive society.
King’s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, will be the keynote speaker at the commemorative service honoring her father at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. As is the custom for most presidents, Trump is not expected to participate, but she does hope he will observe the holiday.
“This is what I would like President Trump to do: Don’t let the King Holiday find you using your Twitter account in an inappropriate way,” Bernice King told The Associated Press. “If he can dare to do that, I would be proud on that day that our president honored Dr. King by not doing things that are offensive.”
King’s son, Martin Luther King III, met with Trump on the last King holiday.
“I would like to believe that the president’s intentions are not to be divisive, but much of what he says seems or feels to be divisive,” King III told the AP. “It would be wonderful to have a president who talked about bringing America together and exhibited that, who was involved in doing a social project. … That would show humility.”