The Setup: Manufactured Outrage, Again
Ah yes, in a nation teetering on the edge of World War III, with missiles lighting up the sky over Tel Aviv, the Iranian regime threatening global catastrophe, fentanyl pouring through open borders, food prices soaring, and the same left-wing NGOs funneling millions to organize teen-led riots that torch cities by night, this is the moral outrage that captures the media’s soul: President Donald Trump didn’t post a holiday card on Juneteenth.
Stop the presses!
Cancel the peace talks!
Grab your fainting couch!
Once more, a mainstream outlet needs a story, and rather than report news, they create controversy. And wouldn’t you know it, the Associated Press, always ready to supply the talking points, provided this one for U.S. News, delivering their outrage with the urgency of a Pulitzer-worthy scoop about a missing tweet.
The latest?
A June 19th article from U.S. News accuses President Trump of disrespecting Black Americans because he didn’t issue a Juneteenth proclamation this year.
Their take?
Fueled by the AP’s ever-dependable pearl-clutching service, his silence is suspect. Their tone? Smug and loaded. Their agenda? Predictable.
Let’s get something straight right out of the gate: there is no federal law requiring any president to issue proclamations for federal holidays.
Not for Labor Day. Not for Presidents Day. And certainly not for Juneteenth. Proclamations are ceremonial.
Optional.
Symbolic.
And often, completely forgotten.
So before we hand out pitchforks and scream racism, let’s consider the facts and the history that's consistently and conveniently not mentioned.
Selective Memory, Convenient Outrage
The piece fails to mention that Trump was the first president to publicly elevate Juneteenth before it ever became a federal holiday. In 2020, he held a rally in Tulsa just days after Juneteenth, and the press blasted him for it. But what they forgot was that his administration had issued statements honoring the holiday before Congress had even voted on making it official.
President Trump’s 2020 campaign released a powerful message celebrating Juneteenth as a "reminder of both the unimaginable injustice of slavery and the incomparable joy that must have attended emancipation."
That’s real.
That happened.
And it’s easily findable. Kind of. When researching for this column, I came across that quote from 2020 and worked to locate a suitable reference. If you want to see "soft" bias at work, use the Google and Brave browser search engines. It's an amazing difference.
But the U.S. News writer either didn’t look or didn’t care.
Now, in 2025, they act like Juneteenth matters more to Trump’s critics than it ever has to them. It’s a gotcha holiday. A tool for political point-scoring.
The DEI Disguise
What they also fail to connect is that President Trump’s silence comes after an executive order gutting federal DEI programs, initiatives that had less to do with unity and more to do with division. Trump isn’t snubbing a race. He’s rejecting a bureaucratic power play wrapped in race-baiting language. And good. He should.
The modern left uses Juneteenth in much the same way as they use Pride Month or International Pronouns Day: not as true remembrances, but as loyalty tests. Trump refuses to bend the knee to identity politics, and that refusal enrages the professional outrage machine.
Real Policy, Real Progress
Let’s talk about what Trump has actually done for minorities. In four years:
- He created Opportunity Zones in underserved communities, which leveraged private investment to spark economic development.
- He oversaw record-low Black and Hispanic unemployment.
- He signed bipartisan criminal justice reform (First Step Act), undoing some of the most damaging policies of the Clinton-Biden era.
- He funded historically Black colleges and universities with permanent money, ending the humiliating ritual of annual begging trips to D.C.
But one missed press release, and suddenly, he’s branded a bigot?
Again.
Ask Biden Where He Was
Let’s do a little historical reflection:
- In 1977, then-Senator Joe Biden opposed school busing to integrate Black schools, saying he didn’t want his children to grow up in a "racial jungle."
- In 1994, he wrote the crime bill that helped explode mass incarceration in minority neighborhoods.
- Today, he gives one speech on Juneteenth while his party supports open borders that flood Black neighborhoods with cheap labor competitors.
But sure. Tell us again how Trump’s the problem.
Silence Isn’t Violence
Not every day requires a tweet. Not every holiday needs a proclamation. The President of the United States is not a social media intern or a professional Hallmark card writer.
He’s a leader.
And if Trump chooses to spend June 19th handling issues of national security, economic stability, or global peace rather than issuing a statement, that’s his prerogative.
He’s already shown he respects the significance of Juneteenth. He just doesn’t believe it needs to be a performative circus to prove his heart.
Final Thoughts
This isn’t about Juneteenth. It’s not about proclamations. It’s about narrative control. The left needs to brand Trump as a racist because his policies exposed their failures. He broke their monopoly on minority votes. And they can’t forgive him for that.
Trump's silence this Juneteenth isn’t the problem. The real silence, the one that matters, is the media's refusal to acknowledge what he did. Jobs.
Reform.
Opportunity.
Truth.
Do you want to talk about Juneteenth? Let’s talk about freedom. Trump gave people the tools to pursue it.
And not just for one day in June.
