Today In History: Trump Celebrates Cinco de Mayo With Taco Bowl, Obama Throws Huge Party As Last Hurrah

May 5, 2017, is the 125th day of the year, with 240 days remaining. The moon is in a waxing gibbous phase, and illumination is at 74 percent.

Obama celebrates last Cinco de Mayo in the White House

On the last Cinco de Mayo of Barack Obama’s presidential career, No. 44 threw a party at the White House, inviting Mexican rock band Maná, who supported Obama for president in 2008 and campaigned with him at an 2012 11,000-person rally in Nevada, and celebrity chef Johnny Hernandez, who owns the restaurants La Gloria, The Fruteria, El Machete and True Flavors Culinary Planners.

“I have cooked in a lot of places as a guest chef,” Hernandez said, as reported by UPI, “but going to the White House as a guest chef is different. It’s a special place.”

“It hasn’t sunk in yet. I think it will when I walk through those hallways. I’m very excited to share the authenticity of Mexican cuisine with the White House and to bring the culture of San Antonio to a new place.”

Trump celebrates Cinco de Mayo with a taco bowl

In the same year, on the same day, future president of the United States Donald Trump was seated in his office at Trump Tower in New York City, a thumbs up aimed at the camera, smile on his face, with a Trump Tower Grill taco bowl set before him.
Commemorating the occasion, Trump tweeted the resulting photo alongside a singular accompanying phrase:
“I love Hispanics!”

Cinco de Mayo is not an all-encompassing Hispanic holiday, however; it is a Mexican holiday that recognizes the Mexico Army’s victory over French forces in the 1862 Battle of Puebla. The taco is, specifically, a traditional Mexican dish.

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Photo credit: Obama White House