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Breanna Robinson

Biden and Trump’s messages on MLK Day couldn’t be any more different

“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.

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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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”.

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:

Another believed that it looked like a letter a mother would write to excuse their child from school.

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