President Trump will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to seven Americans on Friday, including the late rock star Elvis Presley, though even that gesture is coming under fire from Leftist critics, calling his honoring of the King of Rock “racist”.

The Washington Post’s pop culture critic Chris Richards called Trump’s move “a little nod to the good old days, back when black visionaries could invent rock-and-roll, but only a white man could become the king.”

“Yes, Trump is sending a message here,” Richards wrote.

This accusation has been widely ridiculed, with the Weekly Standard publishing a rebuttal, titled, “Elvis Wasn’t Racist. Neither Is Giving Him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”

“If you’re invested in making Elvis an avatar for racial resentments more than 40 years after his death, you’re, perhaps unwittingly, making the problems of contemporary divisions worse,” columnist Mark Hemingway writes. “Music is one of a precious few cultural forces still holding us together.”

Trump is honoring Presley, baseball legend Babe Ruth, former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, philanthropist Miriam Adelson, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, jurist Alan Page, and Hall-of-Fame quarterback Roger Staubach.

The award ceremony is scheduled for Friday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. EST.

In a released statement. Friday’s ceremony, the White House said, “This prestigious award is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, which may be awarded by the President to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”