In a social media post this week, President Trump declared that there are “Too many non-working holidays in America,” framing them as a multi-billion-dollar drain on the economy that “must change.” This argument, viewing our national calendar through the narrow lens of a profit-and-loss statement, prompts a fundamental question about the nature of our republic.

Are our federal holidays an economic burden to be minimized, or are they a civic necessity to be protected?

The President’s post suggests they are the former. But a deeper look at our history and constitutional structure reveals that these days of observance are not about a loss of productivity, but about the essential, and all too rare, act of collective national reflection.

A Day’s Pay or a Shared Identity?

The President’s post claims that closing businesses for federal holidays is something “workers don’t want either!” This assertion, however, runs contrary to available data. American workers already have significantly fewer guaranteed paid holidays and leave days than their counterparts in almost every other developed nation.

Furthermore, surveys consistently show that an overwhelming majority of employees view paid time off as critically important for family, rest, and civic life.

To frame this as an economic debate between productivity and idleness is to miss the point. The core conflict is between two different views of the nation itself. Is the country primarily an economic engine, where a day of rest is a “cost”? Or is it a constitutional republic, where a day of reflection is a vital investment in our shared identity?

The Constitutional Calendar: What We Choose to Remember

The President cannot unilaterally create or eliminate a federal holiday; that power rests with Congress. And when Congress has acted, it has done so to create a calendar that tells the story of our constitutional journey.

Our federal holidays are not random days off; they are the curriculum of our national civics lesson.

Independence Day: This is the most constitutionally significant holiday, celebrating the articulation of our founding creed in the Declaration of Independence—the principles of natural rights and government by consent that form the basis of the Constitution.

Presidents’ Day: Originally Washington’s Birthday, this day honors the establishment of the executive office itself and the precedents set by its first occupant, which gave shape to the President’s constitutional role.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day: This holiday commemorates the leader of the “Second Founding,” a movement that fought to make the promises of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause a reality for all citizens.

Memorial Day & Veterans Day: These days honor the profound civic duty of military service, a duty essential for the “common defense” stipulated in the preamble to the Constitution.

Juneteenth: Our newest federal holiday marks the effective end of slavery, recognizing the moment the nation began to truly confront the “original sin” that stood in direct contradiction to its founding principles.

Each of these holidays forces us to pause and reflect on a specific chapter of our constitutional story—its creation, its leadership, its gravest flaws, and its ongoing struggle toward a more perfect Union.

The Calendar of the Republic: A Fuller Picture

Beyond the most constitutionally significant holidays, the full federal calendar further illustrates our national values. The eleven official federal holidays are:

• New Year’s Day: January 1
• Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday: January 20, 2025 (Third Monday in January)
• Washington’s Birthday (Presidents’ Day): February 17, 2025 (Third Monday in February)
• Memorial Day: May 26, 2025 (Last Monday in May)
• Juneteenth National Independence Day: June 19
• Independence Day: July 4
• Labor Day: September 1, 2025 (First Monday in September)
• Columbus Day: October 13, 2025 (Second Monday in October)
• Veterans Day: November 11
• Thanksgiving Day: November 27, 2025 (Fourth Thursday in November)
• Christmas Day: December 25

Furthermore, many states have their own official holidays that celebrate their unique contributions to the American story, such as Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts and Maine (commemorating the first battles of the Revolutionary War), Seward’s Day in Alaska (marking the purchase of the territory), and Pioneer Day in Utah (celebrating the arrival of Mormon settlers). This rich tapestry of remembrance is a feature of our federalist system, not a flaw.

The Misplaced Debate on Economic Cost

To argue that these holidays are a primary source of economic strain is a political sleight of hand. While a federal holiday does have a cost—often estimated in lost productivity—that cost must be viewed in the context of the entire federal budget. It is a rounding error compared to the staggering sums lost to waste and mismanagement every year.

Consider this: one federal holiday does not equal the cost of our fiscal challenges.

• According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal government made an estimated $162 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2024 alone. This single-year waste from inefficiency and error is many times the combined annual cost of all federal holidays.
• The FY2025 defense budget is nearly $900 billion. The cost of just a handful of F-35 fighter jets—an aircraft program famous for its massive cost overruns—can easily exceed the entire economic impact of a day off for federal workers.

The notion that fiscal responsibility must be achieved on the backs of American workers by cutting their few guaranteed holidays is a deeply flawed premise.

True fiscal leadership would tackle the billions lost to waste, fraud, and abuse documented by the GAO every year.

It would demand accountability for defense programs that are trillions over budget. It would not target a day of rest and civic remembrance as the source of our economic woes.

The Cost of Forgetting

There is, of course, an economic cost to a day when banks and federal offices are closed. But the President’s argument ignores a much greater and more dangerous cost: the cost of forgetting.

A republic is not a corporation. It is a shared project, held together by a common understanding of our history, our values, and our constitutional principles. The federal holidays are the national infrastructure for that shared understanding. They are the moments we have set aside, by law, to educate our children and remind ourselves of where we came from, what we have endured, and what we have sworn to uphold.

To view these days as a mere loss of dollars is to view citizenship itself as a secondary concern to commerce. It is a perspective that sees little value in the shared memory that binds a diverse nation of 330 million people together.

This leaves us with a series of critical questions:

• What is the true purpose of a national holiday in a free society—is it economic productivity or civic education?
• By what metric should we measure the value of a day dedicated to national reflection?
• What is the greater cost to our country: a day of lost productivity, or a generation that no longer understands the constitutional journey we are on?

The ultimate cost is not found in a day’s worth of closed businesses, but in a nation that no longer knows what it is celebrating.