Trump recognizes MLK Day after hours of election fraud posts and ICE raid updates

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump formally acknowledged Martin Luther King Jr Day late in the evening of Monday, January 19, hours after spending much of the holiday posting about alleged election fraud and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on social media.

The proclamation praising the slain civil rights leader appeared on the White House website just before 6 pm ET on Monday, following widespread criticism over Trump’s silence earlier in the day.

White House MLK Day proclamation appears hours after social media backlash

The official proclamation, which carried no visible timestamp on the White House website, was first flagged publicly when an automated tracker reposted it on X (formerly Twitter) at 5.57 pm ET. An archived snapshot of the site from 4.10 pm showed no sign of the statement. The Independent later received the proclamation by email from the White House at 8.15 pm.

“Today, we honor the noble work of the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, whose commitment to justice paved the way to the full realization of the American promise,” the proclamation read. It praised King’s “extraordinary resolve” and reaffirmed a pledge to liberty, equal justice under the law, and human dignity.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also shared the proclamation on social media, roughly nine hours after the administration’s first official post of the day, a celebratory message marking a college football championship game.

Trump spent much of MLK Day posting about ICE raids and ‘rigged elections’

Before the proclamation was released, Trump’s Truth Social account — along with the official White House profile — focused heavily on immigration enforcement and election fraud claims.

“Rigged Elections are common in the US, with the Presidential Election of 2020 being the Granddaddy of them all,” the Republican leader posted earlier in the day. “WE DEMAND VOTER ID”

The White House account repeatedly highlighted ICE crackdowns in Minnesota following mass protests in Minneapolis, drawing further scrutiny as the federal holiday honoring King went unmentioned for most of the day.

Trump’s MLK Day recognition contrasted with past observances

Martin Luther King Jr, assassinated 56 years ago, has been honored on the third Monday of January for nearly four decades, beginning with President Ronald Reagan signing the holiday into law in 1983.

During Trump’s first term, he issued MLK Day proclamations annually from 2018 through 2021, though he faced criticism for spending the 2018 holiday golfing. In 2019, he laid a wreath at the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial in Washington, DC.

This year, Trump spent the holiday at Mar-a-Lago before attending the National College Football Championship in Miami.

Civil rights rollbacks fuel criticism amid delayed MLK Day message

Trump’s late acknowledgment comes as his administration has rolled back diversity, equity, and civil rights initiatives across federal agencies, universities, and corporations through executive orders.

The National Park Service recently announced it would no longer offer free admission on MLK Day or Juneteenth, instead shifting free-entry days to Flag Day and Trump’s birthday.

California Governor Gavin Newsom responded by offering free entry at more than 200 state parks.

“Donald Trump scrapped free entry to National Parks on Martin Luther King Jr Day and replaced it with his own birthday,” Newsom said. “California will not be following that path.”

Members of the King family have also raised alarms. Martin Luther King III told Axios there has been a “coordinated effort to erase or rewrite parts of American history” since Trump returned to office, while Bernice King warned that the current moment demands renewed coordination and civic engagement.