TDS Watch · Minneapolis · May 26, 2026

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Memorial Day Was Yesterday. Minneapolis’ Mayor Spent It Posting About George Floyd.

At 9:03 a.m. Central on Monday, May 25, 2026 — Memorial Day — Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) opened his X account and posted the first of what would become a five-tweet thread. It did not honor a fallen American servicemember. It opened: “Today, we remember George Floyd, who was murdered by a former Minneapolis police officer six years ago. That moment changed our city forever.” May 25, 2026 was both Memorial Day and the sixth anniversary of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody.

For the next two and a half hours, Frey’s feed stayed on Floyd. According to Breitbart News’ on-the-record timeline, at 10:25 a.m. CTBreitbart contacted Frey’s office to ask why the mayor of a major American city had not acknowledged Memorial Day. At 11:38 a.m. CT— two hours and thirty-five minutes after his Floyd post — Frey posted a single Memorial Day tribute: “Memorial Day is a time to remember the brave service members who gave their lives for our country and the freedoms we enjoy today.” Three minutes later, his communications director Ally Petersemailed Breitbart: “The mayor has also posted on his social accounts for Memorial Day. Thanks.”

By the time the Memorial Day post went up, the ratio was already terminal. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Attorney General Keith Ellison (D-MN), and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan (D-MN) had all posted Memorial Day messages earlier that morning, per the Daily Caller. Frey was the outlier. The PJ Media headline that captured the story called the move a hijacking of the federal holiday. The story is not whether Floyd should be remembered — it is whether the mayor of an American city, with a five-post head start over an empty feed for the country’s war dead, picked the right day to do it.

• 5posts about George Floydbefore any Memorial Day acknowledgement— Breitbart News, May 25, 2026 (@EndWokeness, 5/25)
• 2h 35mgap between Floyd & Memorial Day posts9:03 a.m. CT first Floyd tweet · 11:38 a.m. CT first Memorial Day tweet— Breitbart News, May 25, 2026
• 1h 13mfrom Breitbart inquiry to Memorial Day post10:25 a.m. CT inquiry · 11:38 a.m. CT post · 11:41 a.m. CT comms director reply— Breitbart News, May 25, 2026
• 6thanniversary of Floyd's deathMay 25, 2020 — Derek Chauvin convicted of murder and manslaughter in 2021, currently serving concurrent state and federal sentences— Minnesota Dept. of Corrections; DOJ

Breitbart News logged the chronology in real time and put it on the record. The four timestamps are not paraphrase. They are published facts the mayor’s office did not dispute.

Two hours and thirty-five minutes is not a posting error. It is an editorial decision by a sitting mayor and his communications shop about which audience to address first on a federal holiday set aside, by statute, for the country’s war dead.

The thread did not address Floyd as a single, contained anniversary post. It opened a narrative arc. Frey wrote that the killing “changed our city forever” and that it “forced Minneapolis to confront painful truths about race, policing, inequity, and trust — and demanded hard conversations and accountability.” Subsequent tweets walked through the mayor’s view of the city’s ongoing police reform and the planned reconstruction of George Floyd Square at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue.

“Today, we remember George Floyd, who was murdered by a former Minneapolis police officer six years ago. That moment changed our city forever.”

Mayor Jacob Frey (D-Minneapolis) · @MayorFrey · Memorial Day, 9:03 a.m. CT · May 25, 2026

The factual claim in the opening sentence — that Floyd was “murdered by a former Minneapolis police officer” — is sustained by the criminal record. Derek Chauvinwas convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter by a Hennepin County jury in April 2021. He subsequently pleaded guilty in federal court to violating Floyd’s civil rights and is currently serving concurrent sentences. The legal characterization is not in dispute. What is disputed is whether the mayor of an American city should open Memorial Day morning on that subject — and only that subject — before the country’s war dead get a single sentence.

Fox News, Twitchy, and the Daily Caller documented the X response in detail. The first critics to land on the post were not anonymous accounts — they were named commentators, named elected officials, and a viral aggregator account with verified handles.

Reporter Andy Ngoreplied directly to Frey’s framing that Floyd’s death “changed our city forever”: “It changed your city, state and my country for the worse. Rioters on your side killed people and did billions in economic damage.” Commentator Tomi Lahren, military analyst Joey Jones, and former U.S. Air Force colonel and author Buzz Pattersonfiled similar responses, with Jones’ cut down to four words: “Today is for heroes.”

The most damaging fact for Frey’s defense is not the backlash from conservatives. It is that every other named Minnesota Democrat handled the morning differently. Per the Daily Caller’s reconstruction of Memorial Day social traffic, Governor Tim Walz (D-MN), Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Attorney General Keith Ellison (D-MN), and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan (D-MN) all posted Memorial Day tributes earlier in the morning. None of them opened the day with George Floyd. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, holding the federal post, used Memorial Day to fulfill a Gold Star wife’s request, visit Arlington National Cemetery, and photograph the grave for her — with the caption, “It was an honor to visit your husband’s grave today on your behalf.” Townhall ran it the next morning under the headline, “Jacob Frey, Look at Tulsi Gabbard’s Memorial Day Post. That’s How You Do It.”

President Donald Trump (R)delivered Memorial Day remarks at Arlington National Cemetery, per the White House’s May 25, 2026 transcript release. Earlier in the morning he posted a Memorial Day message on Truth Social characterizing the day in terms of the “ultimate sacrifice” and acknowledging the fallen and their families. The contrast — a sitting president opening Memorial Day on the war dead while the mayor of a major American city opened Memorial Day on a death-in-custody anniversary — drove the framing of the story across right-of-center outlets within hours.

Frey is not running for mayor against a hypothetical opponent. He is running for a third term in a city where ranked-choice voting has produced an opposition coalition. Per CBS Minnesota’s October 19, 2025 interview, Frey’s top three opponents — Dewayne Davis, Jazz Hampton, and Omar Fateh — formed a coalition asking their supporters not to rank Frey second or third.

The Memorial Day post sits inside that re-election context. Crime trends, the case Frey usually leads with, have moved in his favor: violent crime is down across most categories in 2025–2026 per the city’s public Crime Dashboard and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Minneapolis homicides fell to roughly 64 in 2025 from approximately 76 the year before. The city’s homicide clearance rate hit an 80% rate in 2025 per MPR News. The political problem is not that the numbers are bad. The political problem is that Frey’s left flank does not believe him on policing — which is exactly the audience his Memorial Day Floyd thread was speaking to.

Two things can be true. George Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020 is a fact, with a conviction record attached to it. The sixth anniversary of that death is a real day on a real calendar, and the City of Minneapolis is not wrong to mark it. The annual Rise & Remember Street Festival at 38th and Chicago, attended by Governor Walz and members of Floyd’s family per WCCO Radio, is a real civic event with a real constituency.

Memorial Day is also a real day on the same calendar. The federal observance has no second meaning. It is not Veterans Day, which honors all who have served. It is not Police Officers Memorial Day, observed earlier in May. It is the day the country sets aside for the men and women who died wearing an American uniform. The editorial question for Frey is not whether Floyd’s anniversary can be acknowledged on May 25. The editorial question is whether the elected chief executive of a major American city should publish five posts on a death-in-custody anniversary before posting a single sentence for the country’s war dead — and whether the answer changes when a national outlet has to call to ask.

“Today is for heroes.”

Joey Jones · USMC veteran, EOD technician, Fox News military analyst · May 25, 2026