President Donald Trump is forging ahead with a controversial plan to declare two new holidays—but you’ll still have to report to work.
Trump said he will declare May 8 and Nov. 11 as national holidays in a Truth Social post on Monday, supposedly to commemorate American victories in the two world wars.
“We will not be closing the Country for these two very important Holidays, November 11 and May 8, World War I and World War II, because we already have too many Holidays in America — There are not enough days left in the year,” he wrote. “We were Workers then, and we are Workers now!”
Trump said he wanted to recognize the two new holidays because “the only country that doesn’t celebrate is the United States of America,” citing Allied countries’ commemoration of May 8 as Victory Day.
“The Victory was only accomplished because of us,” the president argued. “Without the United States, the War would have been won by other Countries, and what a different World it would be.”
Critics earlier pointed out, however, that World War II didn’t end for the U.S. in May.
Many European allies celebrate May 8 as Victory Day to mark Germany’s surrender and the end of hostilities, but the U.S. famously continued fighting against Japan until August 1945, culminating in the dropping of atomic bombs. The Japanese surrendered the following month.
“Trump is a complete moron,” former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann said in an X post.
Trump’s plan also means that Nov. 11 would no longer be known as Veterans Day, which is celebrated annually for veterans’ “patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good,” according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In 1971, Congress passed a law moving Veterans Day to the fourth Monday of every October to ensure that the holiday would fall on a three-day weekend.
However, the move faced such widespread backlash that lawmakers were forced to change the date back to Nov. 11.
“It was quite apparent that the commemoration of this day was a matter of historic and patriotic significance to a great number of our citizens,” the VA said, adding that restoring the original date “supported the desires of the overwhelming majority of state legislatures, all major veterans service organizations and the American people.”
