Trump attacks communism in Mount Rushmore anniversary speech
The president used an Independence Day address to praise the military, criticize democratic socialists and frame immigration as an ideological fight.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
3 min read
President Donald Trump opened the United States’ 250th anniversary weekend with a Mount Rushmore speech that mixed praise for the military with warnings about what he called communism inside the country. The remarks put ideology and national identity at the center of the Independence Day celebration as the November midterm elections approach.
Speaking at the South Dakota monument on July 3, Trump said the US had built “the strongest and most powerful military” and pointed to victories in the two world wars, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. He also claimed the Cold War had consigned US adversaries to history.
Trump used the address to make broader claims about recent conflicts. He said the US had “beat Venezuela in one day” and “knocked the hell out of Iran,” according to Al Jazeera and Reuters.
Iran war and domestic pressures
Al Jazeera reported that the speech came amid voter concern over inflation and high energy prices linked to the continuing US-Israel conflict with Iran. Trump briefly addressed the war, saying Tehran was “dying to settle.”
He also said Washington had given Iran “a week off for a funeral because we’re nice,” referring to state funeral events for Iran’s late supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Al Jazeera reported that Khamenei was killed in a strike on the first day of the US-Israeli war.
Attack on the left
Trump devoted much of the speech to left-wing politics at home. He said there was a “resurgence of the communist menace” in the US, including among some newcomers who, in his view, hold beliefs opposed to the country’s system.
He called communism “the enemy of the Constitution” and said US citizens would defeat it quickly, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. Trump linked that message to immigration, suggesting left-wing political figures and some undocumented arrivals should be removed from the country.
Al Jazeera reported that the comments followed recent progressive primary wins in New York, Colorado and Texas. Trump described democratic socialists as the “greatest threat” to the country since its founding, comparing the movement’s potential effect to World War II and the September 11 attacks.
He ended by describing the 250th anniversary as the start of what he called America’s golden age.
Strategists split over message
Republican strategist Eli Bremer told Al Jazeera that portions of the speech were sufficiently unifying that they could have been given by Ronald Reagan decades earlier. Bremer also said the divide between the American left and right has “really never been wider.”
Democratic strategist Ameshia Cross, a former Obama campaign adviser, told Al Jazeera that Trump was trying to erase the country’s diverse history. Cross said the speech showed a president who believes his hold on the country is weakening, and she tied the timing to a recent Supreme Court loss for Trump on birthright citizenship.
Al Jazeera contrasted Trump’s message with remarks in New York by progressive Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who used a naturalisation ceremony to praise immigrants and present civic dissent as patriotic. Democrats have also accused the administration of allowing a conservative group to take over anniversary planning from what had been a bipartisan congressional commission, according to Al Jazeera.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.