1/21/2019

HOLIDAY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump briefly visited a national monument to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday [1-21-19] to lay a wreath below the towering statue of the slain civil rights leader. ‘Beautiful day,’ Mr. Trump said to reporters. ‘Thank you for being here. Appreciate it.’ He was accompanied on the two-minute visit by Vice President Mike Pence and David Bernhardt, the acting interior secretary. Mr. Trump’s stop by the memorial — to observe a moment of silence without extended public remarks — appeared to be a last-minute addition to his calendar. The president’s schedule listed no public events to mark the federal holiday honoring King’s life, which had drawn criticism from civil rights activists…Mr. Trump also drew heat last year for spending Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the Trump International Golf Course in Palm Beach, Fla., and only tweeting a video message about the civil rights leader. This year, however, Mr. Trump has been grounded in Washington by the ongoing government shutdown. His aides have said he does not plan to travel to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, where he typically spends winter weekends, until the shutdown is over.”

Annie Karni, “Trump Lays Wreath at Brief Visit to Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial,” The New York Times online, January 21, 2019