CNN
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President Donald Trump took to social media Thursday on Juneteenth, a federal vacation, to criticize the variety of “non-working holidays” in the US.
“Too many non-working holidays in America. It’s costing our Nation $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to maintain all of those companies closed. The employees don’t need it both! Quickly we’ll find yourself having a vacation for each as soon as working day of the yr. It should change if we’re going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote in a put up on his Fact Social platform.
Juneteenth is the oldest regular US celebration of the end of slavery. It commemorates June 19, 1865 – the day that Union Military Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and informed a bunch of slaves that the Civil Conflict had ended and so they have been free – greater than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Throughout Thursday’s White Home press briefing, White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt informed reporters Trump was unlikely to mark the federal vacation.
“I’m not monitoring his signature on a proclamation right now,” Leavitt mentioned. “I do know this can be a federal vacation — I need to thank all of you for exhibiting as much as work. We’re actually right here, we’re working 24/7 proper now.”
In the meantime, Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden delivered remarks commemorating Juneteenth at a historic Black church in Galveston, the place he mentioned, “Our federal holidays say … who we’re as People.”
“What we rejoice says what we worth,” Biden added.
Trump has beforehand tried to take credit score for making Juneteenth “very well-known,” saying throughout his first time period in 2020 that, “no person had ever heard of it.” His feedback got here whereas the nation was reeling from ongoing civil unrest after George Floyd’s demise by the hands of Minneapolis law enforcement officials.
Trump had previously pledged to make Juneteenth a federal vacation throughout his 2020 presidential marketing campaign. Juneteenth didn’t change into an official vacation till 2021, under President Joe Biden’s administration.
Since his reelection, Trump has made the elimination of DEI packages a centerpiece of his administration, cracking down on variety efforts within the federal authorities with a sequence of government orders.
This story has been up to date with extra particulars.
CNN’s Donald Judd and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.
