President Donald Trump has not recognized Martin Luther King Jr. Day through official statements, proclamation or activity. It is a departure from his first term and his predecessors.

play

In a break from past presidential traditions, including his own first term, President Donald Trump has not recognized Jan. 19 2026 as Martin Luther King Jr. Day through any official statement, proclamation or activity.

The federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader’s work against end segregation and racism falls on the third Monday of January.

Trump spent the day at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He is scheduled to attend the National College Football Championship in Miami in the evening.

The White House did not immediately respond when asked on Jan. 19 whether Trump planned to acknowledge the day, or King’s legacy.

Trump’s only social media post the morning of Jan. 19 called for voter ID requirements, a measure opposed by civil rights groups because racial minorities are more likely to lack state-issued identification. The White House social media accounts posted about ICE and Trump’s accomplishments in his first year in office after being contacted by USA TODAY.

Congress created the Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and only it can stop its official observance. President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law on Nov. 2, 1983, thus designating the third Monday in January a federal holiday in observance of the civil rights leader.

Trump is the first president not to issue an official proclamation recognizing Martin Luther King Jr. Day since Reagan made it a holiday.

Most presidents, including Trump in his first term, also acknowledged the holiday through acts of service, memorial celebrations, speeches or laying a wreath at the memorial to King on the National Mall.

For example, in 2023 President Joe Biden gave a speech at Martin Luther King Jr.’s church. In 2008, then-President George W. Bush spoke at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C. In 2007, Bush participated in a day of volunteer service at a local high school.

Trump’s return to the White House on Jan. 20, 2025 was an historic convergence with Inauguration Day coinciding with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Then-President Joe Biden signed a proclamation before leaving office.

Trump has made rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion programs a key priority of his second administration.

Last year, the Pentagon paused observance of Black History Month and this year the Trump administration eliminated Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth from the National Park Service’s lineup of fee-free days (and added Trump’s birthday instead).  

Trump marked the holiday during his first term. Before his inauguration in 2017, Trump called on Americans to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day and “celebrate all of the many wonderful things that he stood for” shortly before meeting with Martin Luther King III at Trump Tower.

In 2018, he signed an official proclamation, but was criticized for not making a public appearance.

Then in 2019 and 2020, Trump signed a proclamation and made visits to lay a wreath at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. on the holiday. He also signed a proclamation in 2021 before leaving office.

Trump’s most recent proclamation, signed Jan. 16, recognized Religious Freedom Day. It is the third proclamation he signed since the start of the new year.