Donald Trump goes meekly quiet on Martin Luther King Day
Donald Trump has never allowed holidays to slow down his divisive ranting before. He spent Christmas Eve bashing everyone from the media to the United Nations. He rang in the New Year by talking about his “enemies.” So one might have expected Trump to spend Martin Luther King Jr. Day picking his usual fights and throwing his usual tantrums, particularly considering he had spent the past several days attacking MLK’s close friend, John Lewis. But instead, Trump went surprisingly meekly quiet today.
The turn of events started when he canceled his planned visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the last mnute, which his people blamed on a scheduling conflict. But considering that John Lewis spearheaded the creation of that museum, it seems more likely that Trump canceled in order to avoid the bad optics of showing up to the museum while feuding with Lewis.
And so far today, Donald Trump has only tweeted one thing: “Celebrate Martin Luther King Day and all of the many wonderful things that he stood for. Honor him for being the great man that he was!” It’s surprisingly docile, makes no attempt to attack or divide anyone for once, and represents the rare instance of Trump pulling his punches. Even more surprisingly, eleven hours later, he still hasn’t tweeted. Has his phone been taken away again, or is he truly unsure of his footing on MLK Day?
