President Donald Trump made no statement about the federal holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, other than saying there were too many like it. Lesser occasions routinely garner official proclamations.

Donald Trump claimed he "made Juneteenth very famous." In 2025, the Republican president didn't bother to acknowledge the national holiday at all.

As towns and cities across the United States today celebrate the anniversary of the end of slavery on Juneteenth, see how communities have marked the federal holiday.

Five years ago, the nation recognized the first Juneteenth. It marks the day in 1965 when Union soldiers went to Galveston, Texas and told enslaved people they were free. It happened two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

One local city is finally starting their own Juneteenth celebrations. Juneteenth began all the way back on June 19, 1865, when a group of Galveston, Texas slaves finally learned of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.