Celebrate a King, Not a Trump
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Letter from Birmingham Jail
12 min read
The article prominently discusses this 1963 letter by MLK as essential reading. Most readers know of it but haven't studied its arguments about nonviolent resistance and the critique of white moderates in depth.
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16th Street Baptist Church bombing
13 min read
The article references King's eulogy for the four girls killed in this 1963 bombing. This pivotal moment in civil rights history provides crucial context for understanding the violence the movement faced.
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Martin Luther King Jr. Day
10 min read
The article centers on this federal holiday and its 1983 establishment under Reagan. The Wikipedia article covers the controversial path to its creation, including opposition and the compromise on the date.
The Justice Department remains wildly out of compliance with the Jeffrey Epstein transparency law Congress passed last year—but don’t expect the House Republicans who voted for the bill to make too much of a stink about it. “I don’t give a rip about Epstein,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) told Politico last week. “I’ve done what I had to do for Epstein. Talk to somebody else about that. It’s no longer in my hands.”
Way too much weekend news for us to go dark for the holiday—but we hope you enjoy a pleasant Martin Luther King Jr. Day today. Happy Monday.
Honoring MLK Today
by William Kristol
On November 2, 1983, President Reagan signed legislation officially proclaiming the third Monday in January a federal holiday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy.
So far as I can tell, our current president has issued no statement this year in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Indeed, this administration’s only notice of the day seems to have come in late November of last year, when it announced that it had eliminated this holiday from the list of days with free entry to America’s national parks.
So if you go to a national park today, you’ll have to pay. But not if you go on June 14th, 2026. For Donald Trump’s Interior Department has announced that the schedule of “resident-only patriotic fee-free” days will include for the first time that date billed as “Flag Day/President Trump’s birthday.”
So petty. So pathetic.
Still, Martin Luther King Jr. Day remains a federal holiday. There is no federal holiday honoring the current occupant of the Oval Office. I trust there never will be. And it is heartening that the United States is still a country that, by law and consensus, honors King and not Trump.
If you want to reflect on real American patriotism and greatness, you might take a few moments today to read about the life and achievements of King and the civil rights movement he led. You might particularly find it worthwhile to read some of King’s own writings, and to listen to or watch some of his own words.
You might focus on the year 1963. In April of that year, he wrote his great “Letter from a
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