By cancelling the White House Eid celebration, Trump insulted America’s first amendment

There are around three million Muslims in the United States. It’s not as many as the 54 million that Americans estimated there to be in a 2016 Ipsos Mori survey. But still, there are quite a lot of people in the US for whom Ramadan is a big deal – and for whom Eid, the festival which brings Islam’s holy month to a close, is an important and joyful celebration.

Presumably that’s why for the last two decades White House administrations have thought it might be a rather positive gesture to host a dinner to mark the religious holiday. Indeed, on the occasion of the first such dinner, the then-First Lady Hillary Clinton remarked that it was “historic and overdue”.

In the years after Bill Clinton’s presidency, Presidents Bush and Obama both continued the tradition, breaking the Ramadan fast with prominent American Muslims either for Eid or at an iftar (a post-sunset meal during the period of observance) in a gesture of solidarity and respect. But now, with Donald J Trump at the helm, the custom has been brought to a juddering halt.

Trump, of course, doesn’t seem particularly keen on letting Muslims into the US at all, so his reluctance to let a few dozen into the White House perhaps ought not to come as a surprise. Yet it is a dismaying omission nonetheless.

Some former White House officials have suggested that planning for an iftar takes months and that, with Ramadan falling relatively soon after Trump’s inauguration (well, er, five months), it would always have been tricky to get the event organised in time. That sounds like a handy – if hard to believe – excuse.

After all, it is notable too that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson did not hold an Eid celebration at the State Department this year, once again breaking with a tradition dating back to the 1990s. Administration officials told The Washington Post that he had rejected a request by his department’s office of religion and global affairs to host a reception.

Both Tillerson and the President released statements sending, respectively, “best wishes” and “warm greetings” to Muslims celebrating Eid. But they were bland words, particularly when set against the proactive approaches of Trump’s predecessors.

When the Clintons hosted the first White House Eid dinner, Hillary noted that “a greater understanding of the tenets of Islam in our national consciousness will help us build strength and resilience as a nation”. But really, the tradition does more than that: it has helped to demonstrate that the protection afforded to individuals’ religious observance by the first amendment of the US constitution is a protection which can be claimed equally by all religions, including Islam. That has been especially important in recent years, when ordinary Muslims in the US – as in the UK – have frequently felt themselves the object of suspicion.

The trouble with Trump is that he appears to be as unbothered by America’s proud constitutional achievements as he is by the need to promote unity among all of America’s peoples. It only matters whether or not you’re a Trump guy. And history only becomes worth a dime if it can be used to make a favourable comparison between the 45^th presidency and the preceding 44 – “largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period”; “one of the most successful 13 weeks in the history of the presidency” and so on, ad nauseam.

Of course, the fact that it was Hillary Clinton who began the tradition of a White House Ramadan celebration is hardly likely to have made Trump feel better disposed towards maintaining it.

Yet his failure to recognise the most important festival in the Islamic calendar is indicative of his general outlook. In Trump’s worldview Muslims are – to a greater or lesser degree – the baddies. He seeks to prevent entry to the US for travellers from a range of Muslim-majority countries; he tweets his rage at terror attacks by Muslims, but not at those motivated by Islamophobia; he pooh-poohs those in America, such as Obama, who seek to celebrate the role of Muslims in US public life.

Hosting an Eid dinner at the White House would have been the easiest thing in the world for Trump. He could still have had his extra scoop of ice cream and ketchup with everything. He would have reassured Muslims in America that they – and their religion – have a place in the US in 2017. By deciding to ditch the tradition instead, Trump has simply shown – yet again – that he isn’t fit for the office he holds.