KING AND THE KING January 16, 2026

Martin Luther King Day will be celebrated Monday, one day before the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s second presidential—and first royal—term. Talk about irony!

Martin Luther King, Jr. roused many Americans with his speeches and marches promoting civil rights while espousing nonviolence. Donald Trump incites violence—think January 6th, Venezuela, possibly Greenland, maybe Iran, definitely Minnesota—while attempting to turn back the clock to the Jim Crow era prior to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

In 1963, King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial. An estimated 250,000 people attended. He said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Trump, playing to white-supremacist supporters yearning for the 1950s when African Americans and other minorities “knew their place,” counters King. He claims that America’s white majority is now judged by the color of their skin—negatively so.

Trump recently told the New York Times that the Civil Rights Act “resulted ultimately in the discrimination against white men… White people were very badly treated, where they did extremely well and they were not invited to go into a university or a college.” Trump conceded that the Civil Rights Act “accomplished some very wonderful things, but it also hurt a lot of people.”

Disclosure: I believe that much of affirmative action—not the Civil Rights Act and the quest to abolish segregation—sometimes went overboard and put whites at a disadvantage. But it sought to offer opportunities that Blacks and other minorities long had been denied. 

Disclosure II: Such programs excluded Jews and Asians.

A publication to which I submitted short stories their $3 submission fee for BIPOC—Black, Indigenous, People of Color—writers. The assumption? BIPOC equals poor. A BIPOC professional writing in his or her spare time? No fee. David Perlstein pays the fee automatically.

Had the publication waived fees for writers struggling financially, the offer would have cut across ethnic lines. That would have been true to MLK’s vision.

Clarification: Identity politics and practices can divide Americans; Donald Trump’s rantings divide us even more. In 2017, a Unite the Right march was held in Charlottesville, Virginia. White supremacists carrying tiki torches chanted, “Jews will not replace us.” Trump’s comment: “There were fine people on both sides.”

Change challenges people. Many Americans grew up believing that white people—descendants of ethnic European Christians and a large majority—should rule the country. Pursuing race-free equality, as they see it, turns the world upside down. They fear people who are different. Trump long has exploited their fears.

One year into Trump’s second administration—reign—civil rights and American democracy itself confront a crisis.

But I, too, have a dream: Americans who voted for Trump in 2024 despite not liking him and those who sat out the presidential election, will wake up to reality. They’ll help vote Democratic majorities into the House and Senate. Along the way, Congressional Republicans will grow backbones and decide that integrity matters. They’ll elevate the Constitution above their careers. Which, Trump weakened, may thrive.

When it comes to leading America in the right direction, Martin Luther King far trumps King Donald.

To understand the background of today’s far-right, authoritarian descent, read my new novel, RIDE THE TYGER. Order from Amazon, barnesandnoble.com, iuniverse.com, or your favorite bookstore.