Trump’s made-up war on Thanksgiving, explained – By Emily Stewart (VOX) / Nov 27 2019
After claiming victory over the war on Christmas, the president has now moved on to the … war on Thanksgiving.
Before we inevitably arrive at the alleged war on Christmas this holiday season, we’ve first got to tackle the … war on Thanksgiving? Which is supposedly a thing now, too. At least according to President Donald Trump.
Conservative media and some Republicans have for years claimed that Christmas is under attack, turning some people’s decision to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” during the month of December into a culture war touchstone to try to spark outrage on the right. Trump has embraced the “war on Christmas” narrative, and now he’s taking it a step further: he’s claiming liberals are out to get Thanksgiving, too.
At a rally in Florida on Tuesday, the president confoundingly reassured supporters that he wouldn’t let the “radical left” change Thanksgiving’s name. “As we gather for Thanksgiving, you know, some people want to change the name Thanksgiving. They don’t want to use the term Thanksgiving,” Trump said. He later continued: “People have different ideas why it shouldn’t be called Thanksgiving, but everybody in this room, I know, loves the name Thanksgiving. And we’re not changing.”
It’s not clear who on the left Trump believes is trying to change the name of Thanksgiving, which is a secular American holiday. It’s true there is some cultural strife surrounding the day, including its historical weight for Native Americans and its environmental impact, but there’s not some broad push to change the name of the holiday altogether.
Trump’s remarks quickly took off online, with the hashtags #WarOnThanksgiving and #WhatLiberalsCallThanksgiving trending on Twitter, largely ironically. Some conservatives, on the other hand, have tried to find ways to back up the president’s claims.
Continue to article: https://www.vox.com/explainers/2019/11/27/20985579/trump-rally-change-thanksgiving-name-liberals-fox-news-florida
President Donald Trump tosses a hat into the crowd at a rally in Sunrise, Florida in November 2019. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
