Trump rehashes MLK bust report at Black History Month event

During a White House event commemorating Black History Month, President Donald Trump complained again about an inaccurate January report that he had removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office.

“You read all about Dr. Martin Luther King a week ago, when somebody said I took the statue out of my office and it turned out that that was fake news. Fake news,” Trump said Wednesday. 

{mosads}“But they said the statue, the bust, of Dr. Martin Luther King, was taken out of the office. And it was never even touched, so I think it was a disgrace, but that’s the way the press is. Very unfortunate,” he added.

Trump was referring to a Time magazine journalist’s mistaken report on Inauguration Day that the president had removed the bust of the civil rights leader. The reporter, Zeke Miller, said in a correction that he was unable to initially see the bust because a door and a Secret Service agent were blocking the view. 

The mistake was disseminated in a White House pool report, which Miller quickly corrected. He also wrote on Twitter about the mistake and apologized.

“This is on me, not my colleagues. I’ve been doing everything I can to fix my error. My apologies,” Miller wrote at the time.

Trump attacked the reporter for the mistake the following day, during an address at the CIA and rehashed the incident again last Thursday, calling it a “serious charge” that implied he is racist.

Trump on Wednesday said King’s “incredible example is unique in American history” and went on to praise other black leaders, from Rosa Parks to Frederick Douglass.

“I am very proud now that we have a museum on the National Mall where people can learn about Reverend King, so many other things,” he said. “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job that is being recognized more and more I notice.”