Trump and Martin Luther King

The whims of destiny led to the coincidence that on January 20, 2025, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the inauguration of the 47th president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, took place.
Trump is the first president of this country to take office after being criminally convicted and surviving at least two assassination attempts during his electoral campaign. His speech remained true to his style: grandiose, full of falsehoods, contradictory, and filled with promises of a future full of conflict for the region and the world.
In one part of his speech, he referenced Martin Luther King Jr., stating, “…in his honor, we will make his dream a reality.”
Martin Luther King Jr., alongside many other men and women of his time, tirelessly fought for the rights of African Americans, not only for their civil liberties but for all of their fundamental rights.
Undoubtedly, while there have been notable advances, substantial equality remains distant. One need only look at the data showing their overrepresentation in poverty or in the prison system, to name just a few examples.
However, President Trump has announced that his administration will stop “socially managing race and gender in all aspects of public and private life… promoting a society that does not discriminate based on color and is based on merit.”
While non-discrimination should certainly be embraced as a goal, public policies that ignore the fact that women and certain social sectors or groups are at a significant disadvantage compared to men in more powerful social classes only serve to deepen disparities and inequalities.
While Martin Luther King Jr. was a fierce advocate for the rights of workers, regardless of their color or origin, the current president of the United States has begun his administration by taking measures against migrant people, the vast majority of whom are workers.
The grandson of German immigrants, married to an Eastern European migrant, and having appointed the son of Cuban emigrants as Secretary of State, he said in his speech:
“First, I will declare a national emergency at the southern border of the country. Any illegal entry will be stopped immediately, and we will begin the process of sending millions and millions of foreign criminals back to the places they came from.”
Among the measures taken in the first 24 hours of his administration, he plans to deny U.S. citizenship to children born in the U.S. to undocumented migrant parents, even if one of them has proper documentation.
As the organization Justice in Motion has expressed, migrant workers are the backbone of many industries, including agriculture, healthcare, and construction, while facing great exploitation and serious obstacles in ensuring their labor rights are respected. Fulfilling Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream should prioritize their protection—yet this was not mentioned in President Trump’s speech.
On the contrary, his approach is one of repression: “We will restore the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy. I will end the practice of catch and release. I will send soldiers and troops to the southern border to repel the shameful invasion of our country.”
In a key speech in 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. opposed the Vietnam War, emphasizing the need for consistency in his demands both within and outside his country.
At that time, he expressed: “I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without first speaking clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today—my own government.”
On this day of equality (dedicated to the great champion of peace), the head of the new American administration, while claiming he wishes to be remembered as a peacemaker (“My proudest legacy will be as a peacemaker and someone who unifies”), reaffirmed his long-announced objective: to make the U.S. “…bigger, stronger, and much more exceptional than ever,” a goal that is hardly compatible with peace in the world.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech on the day of his assassination (April 3, 1968), known as “I Have Seen the Promised Land,” contains a powerful message not only about the desire but also the necessity for peace in the world:
“For years, man has talked about War and Peace. It is no longer a choice between violence and non-violence in this world; it is non-violence or non-existence. And that is where we are today.”
Even the most generous reading of President Trump’s inaugural speech does not reveal any connection to the thinking of Martin Luther King Jr.
Trump’s words focus on exceptionalism, expansionism, and manifest destiny, leaving no room for building mutually beneficial relationships with other countries, except for his own—or more accurately, for certain sectors of his own country.
We will have to see how this administration unfolds, as it has just begun. Hopefully, the reference to Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and thought will not be a mere passing mention in a speech, but that his struggles and proposals will be seriously considered in favor of peace and justice, both in the U.S. and around the world.