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Juneteenth, the day commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, became a federal holiday in 2021 under then-President Joe Biden. Before that, the holiday was informally celebrated around the country as a way to celebrate liberation from what is commonly referred to as America’s “original sin.”
But the current occupant of the White House has a track record of expressing sympathy and solidarity not with the pro-American Union forces who won the war. Instead, Donald Trump has aligned himself with the Confederacy which fought to retain human bondage.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump works the crowd after a rally at the Macon Centreplex Coliseum while a member of the crowd holds up the former flag of the state on Nov. 30, 2015, in Macon, Georgia.Biden renamed several military bases that were named after Confederate leaders, a change long requested by civil rights activists. Trump undid that task and reverted the names of several bases to their pro-Confederate status.
For instance, Trump changed Fort Gregg-Adams—named in honor of two Black veterans who served with distinction—back to Fort Lee. Robert E. Lee was the overall commander of the Confederate Army and spent the years 1861 to 1865 fighting for southern states to preserve the right to own Black people.
Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have said that the restored names do not honor the Confederacy and claim the new names coincidentally honor veterans with the same last name as Confederate “heroes.’ Based on both men’s hostility to civil rights and their history of racism, the excuse is not credible.
Trump has even attacked President Abraham Lincoln, one of the most revered figures in American and world history, and criticized his actions before the Civil War.
“See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you. I think you could have negotiated that,” Trump said last January.
To “negotiate” with the southern states would have meant agreeing that they could preserve slavery.
And Trump is far from alone in whitewashing the confederacy.
In a recent appearance on Theo Von’s podcast, Vice President JD Vance complained about recent campaigns to finally confront the legacy of the Civil War.
“I feel like something happened like 10 years ago where every - - it’s like you have to think that every single person that, who fought for the Confederate side was an evil person. I just think that’s so stupid,” Vance said.
Let’s not forget that the entire point of the Confederacy was to defend slavery, particularly the right to own Black people as property.
In a 2015 column for the National Constitution Center, Paul Finkelman, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, examined the documents and speeches made by Confederate leaders at the time the South seceded from the United States.
“These speeches and documents show that the South seceded to protect slavery and insure white supremacy in the South,” he concluded.
Related | Yes, Trump's order to gut the Civil Rights Act is as bad as you think
Trump has spent his second term trying to undo civil rights gained after the end of the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery. He has signed executive orders and pushed federal rules changes meant to undermine the right to equality for millions of Americans. When he isn’t doing that, his administration has been openly purging references to achievements by notable Americans, particularly members of the Black community.
Trump became a political figure by pushing racist conspiracies about Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president. He and his fellow Republicans have made it clear that the history and traditions they want to preserve are on the pro-racism, pro-slavery, losing side of the Civil War.
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