“Last week, Vice President Harris and I visited Atlanta, Georgia, the cradle of civil rights in America. We paused and prayed at the crypt of Dr and Mrs King. "
(Picture: Getty Images)January 17 is the day that many Americans observe and honour civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr for his accomplishments and willpower in making the nation a more unified place.
But not everyone manages to get the right tone - and Donald Trump is one of them.
His previous mis-step was put into sharp contrast on Monday, when Joe Biden took to social media to pay his respects to Dr King.
“Last week, Vice President Harris and I visited Atlanta, Georgia, the cradle of civil rights in America. We paused and prayed at the crypt of Dr and Mrs King. We met with members of their family - Dr Bernice King, Martin Luther King III, his wife Andrea, his daughter Yolanda,” Biden said.
Biden also spoke on Dr King being a 15-year-old student at Morehouse College when he decided to embark on “his journey to fulfill the promise of America for all Americans”.
“A promise that holds that we’re all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives,” he continued.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we must commit to his unfinished work – of delivering jobs and justice, and protecting the sacred right to vote. pic.twitter.com/kS1sRnGAwS
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 17, 2022
It’s a far cry from when Trump tried to to make MLK Day about himself when he still had an active Twitter account.
On January 20, 2020, Trump took to his Twitter to celebrate the three-year anniversary of his inauguration, all before grouping that into the remembrance of Dr King’s birthday.
“It was exactly three years ago today, January 20, 2017, that I was sworn into office. So appropriate that today is also MLK jr DAY. African-American Unemployment is the LOWEST in the history of our Country, by far. Also, best Poverty, Youth, and Employment numbers ever. Great!” Trump tweeted.
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Trump and Pence were met with booing at the #MLK memorial.
— Leah McElrath 🏳️🌈 (@leahmcelrath) January 20, 2020
They stood in front of it for 20 seconds and then left.#MLKDay pic.twitter.com/OWIxAtcqWZ
Last year, Trump and Biden had vastly different schedules for celebrating the civil rights hero, too.
For one, Biden spent the National Day of Service volunteering at Philabundance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, while Trump said he was having “many calls and many meetings”.
Trump and Biden’s schedules for tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/c51fHQCRyS
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) January 18, 2021
People were quick to point out the starkly different approaches in the schedules, with many comparing Trump’s written schedule to that of a child properly formulating sentences for the first time:
I’m now 100% convinced that Trump is writing his own schedules. How can Trump supporters look at trumps schedule and have any confidence in Trump? It looks like a middle schooler Short paragraph essay.
— remmy robertson (@remmy_robertson) January 18, 2021
Is the first one a joke? It looks so unofficial and uses the vocabulary and syntax of an elementary schooler.
— K. Watkins (@watkinskristy) January 18, 2021
Another believed that it looked like a letter a mother would write to excuse their child from school.
Thank God that professionalism is returning to the White House. The former sounds like a mother excusing her child from school, the latter sounds like a professional press release from a professional transition team and press secretary.
— Troy Raiven (@troyraiven) January 18, 2021
We should continue this tradition after Trump leaves office, every day we should be told he is working from early in the morning until late at night, with many meetings and phone calls. Long after he's dead we should keep this joke going.
— Warren Terra (@warren__terra) January 18, 2021
Biden: “Just getting ready to fix all the Trump shit. SMH. FFS. xOxO”
— Russ Castella (@RussCastella) January 18, 2021
B.S. on the left. Reality on the right.
— Alan Kruss (@alan_kruss) January 18, 2021
