Does Trump want to ditch Juneteenth federal holiday in US? His remark causes buzz

President Donald Trump took to social media on Thursday on Juneteenth, a federal holiday, to criticize the number of “non-working holidays” in the United States. In each of his first four years as President, Trump honoured Juneteenth, even before it became a federal holiday. He even claimed to have made it "very famous".

But on Thursday, Trump unleashed one of his traditional holiday rants, threatening to scrap the federal holiday that commemorates the end of slavery.

“Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don’t want it either! Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.


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Government employees are traditionally given the day off on federal holidays while receiving pay. Juneteenth, created to celebrate the freedom of enslaved Black Americans, was designated as a federal holiday in 2021 by former President Biden.

Juneteenth is the oldest regular US celebration of the end of slavery. It commemorates June 19, 1865 – the day that Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, told a group of slaves that the Civil War had ended and they were free - more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

What White House said on Juneteenth?

During Thursday’s White House press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Trump was unlikely to mark the federal holiday.

“I’m not tracking his signature on a proclamation today,” Leavitt said. “I know this is a federal holiday — I want to thank all of you for showing up to work. We are certainly here, we’re working 24/7 right now.”

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During his first term in 2020, Donald Trump claimed credit for popularizing Juneteenth, stating that “nobody had ever heard of it” before he brought attention to the holiday. His remarks came amid nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

"Melania and I send our warmest greetings to all those celebrating Juneteenth, a historic day recognizing the end of slavery," he wrote in 2017, extolling Maj Gen Gordon Granger, who announced in Galveston in 1865 that "all slaves were free." In 2018 he evoked Granger again, and praised "the courage and sacrifice of the nearly 200,000 former enslaved and free African Americans who fought for liberty."

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While Trump promised during his 2020 campaign to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, it was officially recognized in 2021 under President Joe Biden. Since then, Trump has made rolling back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives a key part of his agenda, issuing executive orders aimed at curbing such programs within the federal government.

But since returning to office he has moved to purge the federal government of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and sanitize Black history -- or even erase references to it entirely.