President Donald Trump announced Friday that his upcoming MAGA rally will now take place on June 20, a day later than previously scheduled. That’s because the campaign event in Tulsa, Oklahoma—the site of one of the worst acts of racial violence against black Americans in history—was initially set to occur on Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
“Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this holiday, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents,” the president wrote in a Twitter announcement late Friday night. Trump said he had “therefore decided to move [the] rally … in order to honor their requests” despite the campaign event being “a big deal,” something the president took care to point out.
Team Trump’s initial decision to hold its first mega-rally in months—ticket requests for which Trump claimed on Friday to be “in excess of 200,000”—on Juneteenth seemed almost designed to exacerbate both crises the nation is facing, as my colleague Eric Lutz pointed out this week. Some states are seeing spikes in COVID-19 cases after a holiday weekend. And the police killing of George Floyd has prompted hundreds of thousands to protest in cities across the country as well as a national reckoning when it comes to racism. Trump’s change of heart continues to ignore the former, and shows only surface-level regard for the latter. Despite backing down on the initial rally date “out of respect” for what the holiday represents, NBC notes that the president has repeatedly told aides that “these aren’t my voters” during discussions about how to handle the civil unrest, making clear that he sees no reason to be “anything other than a self-styled ‘president of law and order’” if he won’t benefit politically. In a meeting about how to respond to the ensuing mayhem of his St. John’s church photo-op, NBC reports that, according to one person in attendance, “Trump lamented that none of the protesters had voted for him.”
The president continued his show of empathy laced with his trademark brand of egotism in an interview on Friday, telling Fox News host Harris Faulkner to think of the Juneteenth rally—which had not yet been postponed at the time of the chat—as “a celebration” rather than “an inconvenience,” remarking, “it wasn’t done for that reason, but it’s an interesting date.” Trump also said he considers himself to have “done more for the black community than any other president. And let’s take a pass on Abraham Lincoln because he did good although it’s always questionable, you know, in other words, the end result.” Faulkner interjected to say, “well we are free, Mr. President. He did pretty well.” Trump did not expand further on what specifically was “questionable” about Lincoln’s legacy.
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
— Trump Whines About His COVID-19 Victimhood as Campaign Flails
— In Photos: Protests and Rage in Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles, and More
— James Clyburn on the Floyd Killing and the Role of Race in the Coming Election
— Journalists Become Targets While Covering America’s Unraveling
— Documents Expose FDA Commissioner’s Personal Interventions on Behalf of Trump’s Favorite Chloroquine Doctor
— Why Trump’s New Campaign Slogan, “Transition to Greatness,” Sends a Disastrous Message
— From the Archive: Inside Unspeakable Police Brutality in a Brooklyn Precinct Once Nicknamed Fort Tombstone
Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story.