A Black secret service agent who former President Trump said informed him of the meaning of Juneteenth last year also reportedly told the commander in chief that he found it “offensive” that he had a political rally scheduled in Tulsa on the holiday.
The reported detail was revealed in an upcoming book from Wall Street Journal White House reporter Michael C. Bender, “Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost,” a portion of which Politico published on Friday.
Trump previously told Bender in an interview published by the Journal last year that a Black secret service agent had informed him about the history of Juneteenth, the day commemorating when news of the end to slavery reached Texas in 1865, nearly two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
According to new details released by Bender on Friday, Trump two days after announcing a rally to be held on June 19 in Tulsa, Okla., the location of the 1921 attacks considered one of the country’s bloodiest instances of racial violence, asked an unnamed Black secret service agent about Juneteenth.
“Yes, I know what it is,” the agent said to Trump, according to Bender. “And it’s very offensive to me that you’re having this rally on Juneteenth.”
According to the journalist, it was that night that Trump tweeted that he wished to change the date of his rally.
The details surrounding the controversial scheduling of the rally, which was eventually postponed, comes a day after President Biden signed into law the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, officially making Juneteenth a national holiday in the U.S.
The holiday, which falls on Saturday this year, is being observed by federal employees on Friday, per a Thursday announcement from the Office of Personnel Management.
Trump in last year’s interview with the Journal claimed that it was him who made Juneteenth “very famous” by originally scheduling his campaign rally that day.
However, the then-president expressed surprise in the same interview when an aide informed him that the White House had put out a statement marking the commemoration the year prior.
“Oh, really? We put out a statement? The Trump White House put out a statement?” Trump said at the time. “OK, OK. Good.”
Bender’s book excerpt also revealed other details surrounding the planning of the Tulsa rally, including that it was Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale , who recommended holding the event on June 19.
“No one on Parscale’s team flagged that day—or that combination of time and place—as potentially problematic,” the journalist wrote.
Trump’s team reportedly considered a range of other possible locations for the rally, including Arizona, Florida and Michigan.
The Hill has reached out to representatives for Trump for comment on the newly reported details.
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