Trump: I’ve ‘Studied’ and ‘Admired’ Martin Luther King Jr. ‘My Entire Life’

In comments marking the opening of two new civil rights museums in Mississippi on Saturday, President Trump described Martin Luther King Jr. as a personal hero. Praising Martin Luther King Jr. as one of the driving forces behind the civil rights movement, Trump described him as “a man who I’ve studied and watched and admired for my entire life.” The remarks seem likely to spur confusion among several black leaders who boycotted the event over concerns the president has sown racial division since he took office. The mayor of Jackson, where the museums were opened, Georgia congressman John Lewis, and NAACP president Derrick Johnson were among those to boycott the event. About 50 protesters demonstrated against the president outside the museums as he delivered a brief speech. “The civil rights museum records the oppression, cruelty and injustice inflicted on the African-American community, the fight to bring down Jim Crow and end segregation, to gain the right to vote and to achieve the sacred birthright of equality,” Trump said. “That’s big stuff. Those are very big phrases, very big words.”