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So the first headline I saw in my news feed the other day about Loyalty Day was from Fox News – “Trump proclaims May 1 as ‘Loyalty Day'”. The article implies to the reader that this proclamation is an executive action instituting a new holiday. In fact, Fox News is misstating the truth and using the language of Fascism adding to the steady drumbeat from the right wing media legitimizing the authoritarian actions of the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump on Friday proclaimed May 1 as ‘Loyalty Day’ as a way to “recognize and reaffirm our allegiance to the principles” upon which America was built and express pride in those ideals, according to a release of the proclamation from the White House…The proclamation goes on to say that in order to express our country’s loyalty to “individual liberties, to limited government, and to the inherent dignity of every human being,” May 1 will be known as ‘Loyalty Day.’

In fact, May 1st has been “Loyalty Day” for more more than 50 years and previous administrations such as President Obama’s also took the time to acknowledge it.

To Proclaim

Merriam Webster defines proclaim in the 2nd most common usage as:

“to declare or declare to be solemnly, officially, or formally – proclaim an amnesty – proclaim the country a republic”

This second usage is how most of us think of “proclaim” when used in a speech by our leaders. That this is something they have made to be. Proclaim has a less common connotation, when used to declare a fact already known. Again from Merriam Webster:

“to declare publicly, typically insistently, proudly, or defiantly and in either speech or writing”

For the editors at Fox News this usage is clearly “true” but that doesn’t mean it isn’t meant to say something completely different. Which is of course that “Loyalty Day” is some completely new holiday issued by the administration further normalizing the authoritarian nature of the current regime. In fact the article makes no mention of the prior existence of this observance. An omission that is in fact a lie.