What Trump said about Dr. Martin Luther King are several things which includes during Trump's first presidential term, in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day address, Trump stated that Dr. King’s dream of a colorblind society offered "dignity and hope to every American, regardless of color or creed" and called it the American dream.
In Trump's second term remarks and proclamations, on Martin Luther King Day in January of 2025 and January 2026, Trump issued official presidential proclamations and remarks honoring Dr. King’s commitment to justice, liberty, and equal justice under law, stating an intention to work toward making King's dream a reality and highlighting actions such as declassifying records related to King's assassination.
And in Trump's January 6th/ Rally Comparisons in 2024-2026, Donald Trump has also repeatedly compared the attendance at his own political rallies (such as on January 6, 2021, or Fourth of July events on the National Mall) to Dr. King’s historic 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech.
Donald Trump also asserted that his crowds covered the same "real estate" from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument and privately or publicly claimed he drew as many or more people, while acknowledging standard reports that credited King with roughly a million attendees versus lower estimates for his own events.
And during the critiques of 1960s Civil Rights Protections (January 2026), in an interview with The New York Times, Donald Trump also had addressed the legacy of 1960s civil rights legislation, stating that while the movement accomplished wonderful things, it also resulted in "reverse discrimination" where white people were "very badly treated" and missed out on college or job opportunities in certain cases.
And regarding policy Shifts, critics and civil rights organizations—detailed in the reports by the Economic Policy Institute and The Hill—have noted that the administration's policy choices, such as removing fee-free status for MLK Day at National Parks and rolling back certain voting rights enforcement and anti-poverty program funding, stand in direct tension with Dr. King's legislative and economic legacy.