'Out of Respect,' Trump Moves Date of Campaign Rally

President Trump said earlier this week that his next campaign rally, set to be held Friday in Oklahoma, would be "a celebration," but that event has now been moved so it won't conflict with another commemoration. The rally had generated controversy because it was set to occur on Juneteenth, a holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States—and also because Tulsa, the city where the rally is being held, was the site of a 1921 mass killing of black people by a white mob. Now, after backlash over the date selection, Trump has made a change, CNN reports.

"Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Holiday, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents," he wrote Friday night in a series of tweets. He noted that the "big deal" rally is now scheduled for next Saturday, June 20, and claimed that ticket requests have been "in excess of 200,000." The Hill notes that his switch regarding the rally, which will be his first one in over three months due to the coronavirus pandemic, is a "rare instance of [him] giving in to criticism," though Trump had insisted earlier that the choosing of June 19 as the original date wasn't intentional. (More Juneteenth stories.)