President Trump: "Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2025" and Brief Reflections on this Day Set Aside for Remembering and Honoring those Who Died in Service to the Republic

 

Pix Credit New York Times

Memorials have two distinct meanings. It is deeply embedded in the act or action of memory--remembering, calling up a thing, act, circumstance that has already occurred--and in the process making it both present and substantial.  One travels back in time to retrieve a memory that is then brought forward so that it might in the form of recollection remain present. But memorial is also an object--the thing that is created in order to anchor the recollection, the bringing forward to the present from out of the past--that signifies the memory for individuals and collectives.  It is meant to lock in place the meaning of a memory.  Memorial may also be performed, especially by actions and ceremonies conducted around the objects that solidify both the memory and its meaning. All three of these senses of memorial have become embedded in the traditions by which the Republic recollects the sacrifice of its military, brings that memory forward to the present, and intensifies its meaning through ceremonies conducted around spaces reserved as the resting places of the dead whose memory gives meaning not just to the event, and to the meaning of the sacrifice of the dead, but in the process to also reinforce the meaning and essence of the Republic in the mirror of the dead and their sacrifice. That, perhaps, might well serve to understand and perhaps intensify the importance of Memorial Day on the U.S., the day set aside to mourn and in tribute to those who served and sacrificed for the nation servicing it its armed forces. 

As is customary, on 25 May 2025 President Trump issued a Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2025. It reads in full as follows:

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

Memorial Day is a sacred day of remembrance, reverence, and gratitude for the brave patriots who have laid down their lives in service to our great Nation. Throughout our history, brave men and women have been called to defend the cause of liberty on foreign shores in defense of our homeland. Their noble sacrifices are marked by flag-draped coffins and the silent sorrows of those left behind. We must never forget those who have given everything for our country.

America’s Gold Star Families — whose sons, daughters, wives, and husbands are among the honored — endure unfathomable heartache. Their loved ones selflessly gave everything to protect our sovereignty. They have our unwavering support, deepest gratitude, and highest respect. The lives lost in war serve as a solemn reminder of why we must pursue peace through strength.

We are eternally indebted to our Nation’s fallen heroes. On this solemn day, as we honor their sacrifice, the First Lady and I ask all citizens to join us in prayer that Almighty God may comfort those who mourn, grant protection to all who serve, and bring blessed peace to the world.

In honor of all of our fallen heroes, the Congress, by a joint resolution approved May 11, 1950, as amended (36 U.S.C. 116), has requested the President issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace and designating a period on that day when the people might unite in prayer. The Congress, by Public Law 106-579, has also designated 3:00 p.m. local time on that day as a time for all Americans to observe, in their own way, the National Moment of Remembrance.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Memorial Day, May 26, 2025, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour beginning in each locality at 11:00 a.m. of that day as a time when people might unite in prayer. I ask all Americans to observe the National Moment of Remembrance beginning at 3:00 p.m. local time on Memorial Day. I also request the Governors of the United States and its Territories, and the appropriate officials of all units of government, to direct that on Memorial Day the flag be flown at half-staff until noon on all buildings, grounds, and naval vessels throughout the United States and in all areas under its jurisdiction and control. I also request citizens to display the flag at half-staff from their homes for the customary forenoon period.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.

DONALD J. TRUMP

There were words that were meant, perhaps to resonate in this Prayer proclamation: sovereignty, peace through strength, defend the cause of liberty on foreign shores in defense of our homeland, patriots, sacrifice, bring blessed peace to the world. The prayer-proclamation was delivered within days of the delivery of a different sort of invocation, the Defense Intelligence Agency's 2025 Threat Assessment (discussed here). It is only fitting that the Presidential prayer-proclamation be read together with the assessment of the tasks that will require more sacrifice before any sort of dream of peace to the world will be realized. That knowledge of past sacrifices and those sacrifices yet to be made, and with those who have and will make sacrifices for the Republic, along with those of their loved ones, firmly in mind, reminds us of our debt, and that the memorial we offer today extends not just to the past but also into the future.