President Trump Retweeted An MLK Tribute Video & Twitter Is So Divided
Even though Martin Luther King Jr. was never the POTUS, when the national holiday honoring him comes around, we expect whoever is in office to acknowledge and commemorate his legacy. With all the angst surrounding President Trump lately and his remarks made about immigrants from Haiti and African countries, many of us were curious about how and what he'd bring to the table on MLK, Jr. Day. President Trump's MLK tweet was a video tribute and it certainly received a divided response from people.
And as much as MLK Day should be a time to promote unity, President Trump's tweet had people choosing sides. The video, over two minutes long, features black-and-white footage of significant marches the reverend attended, as well as snippets of his speeches. The clips are amazing and historic, but not everyone was connecting with the words Trump had to say as the images and videos played on their screens. As we all know, everyone's entitled to their opinion and no one silenced theirs when it came to leaving comments on the post.
Take a look for yourself.
President Trump said, "It is the dream of a world where people are judged by who they are, not how they look or where they come from." Seems pretty harmless, right? Well, not so much. Within minutes, hundreds and hundreds of comments were bashing the gesture. Many people didn't think the POTUS was genuine enough, claiming he sounded way too scripted. Honestly though, did anyone think there would be a unanimous consensus about whatever the POTUS posted?
People questioned his beliefs in comparison to Martin Luther King Jr.'s.
In the video, President Trump does mention upholding the visions and dreams of Martin Luther King, Jr. and calls for citizens to, "carry on [MLK's] legacy of justice, equality and freedom," and as you can see from just those few comments, people do not believe that he shares the same values as MLK. Sadly, a post meant to promote unity like MLK, only sent people into seemingly divided views. Don't get it twisted though, people were also supporting President Trump's post.
Other people thought we should cut the POTUS some slack.
See, pretty divided and that hardly touches on all of the comments. The fact that President Trump retweeted this from the White House's Twitter account page, didn't go unnoticed either. That's sort of the curse of being incredibly in the spotlight, ya know? Nothing gets by anyone who is watching intently and ready to give their two cents about it.
People were quick to criticize how they believed he was spending his national holiday.
This came after his daughter, Ivanka Trump, posted a tribute tweet as well. People immediately criticized the post following President Trump's comment about people from "sh*thole countries". Talk about guilty by association. In response to both tweets, people were seriously just not having it.
President Trump would have been criticized either way. If he neglected to post anything, Twitter would have dragged him. And now that he did retweet something he was featured in for MLK Day, people aren't collectively digging it. Again, everyone has a right to their own opinion and hopefully people don't dwell too much on this message rubbing them the wrong way.
In case you didn't get to the end of the video, President Trump mentions how he signed H.R. 267 into law. This law, called the “Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park Act,” has made Georgia home to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. Georgia is the state that Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in. This is a big deal and even if you don't agree with everything President Trump does, it doesn't hurt to take the small wins when you can get them.
While relentlessly supporting your own beliefs and values, it's easy to forget that the premise of MLK's sacrifices stemmed from spreading love. Division doesn't get us anywhere. Unity sure does though.
