KEYSTONE: President Donald Trump called on Americans to protect the freedoms envisioned by the country’s founders 250 years ago against what he portrayed as the “communist” threat posed by progressive Democrats, in his Independence Day address at Mount Rushmore.“We stand beneath these heroes, a true group of great people, and rededicate ourselves to being a nation as big and bold and as noble and as great as these American giants,” Trump said on a granite mountain in South Dakota where the heads of four US presidents are carved. “It’s not easy, but we will do it.”“There is now a renewed communist threat in our land, including from newcomers to our country who espouse ideas that are completely inconsistent with our way of life and success,” he said.
“We won’t let this happen.”Trump has been making such points about the gains made by the Democratic Socialists for a week now, but he made his clearest and longest argument on the subject on Friday, coming as Americans grapple with persistent inflation and rising gas prices since the beginning of the US-Israel war on Iran.Growing concerned that the conflict could cost the party control of at least one chamber of Congress in November’s midterm elections, Republican lawmakers have seized on a series of recent successes by left-wing Democratic candidates.
Trump said the threat also came from “newcomers to our country,” linking his anti-communist rhetoric to the anti-immigrant theme that fueled his election and has historically been part of criticism of communism in the United States. Trump said at one point on Friday that the new arrivals needed to be expelled. “We resolve and swear to all that will hear that the citizens of the United States of America will quickly defeat Communism.
…We will expel them quickly, and we will continue to build our country bigger, better, and stronger than ever. America will never be a communist country!” Trump said, before immediately moving on to the issue at hand.“We can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms.”Four progressive candidates, including three Democratic socialists, won competitive Democratic primaries in New York City last week and in Colorado on Tuesday.
Progressive candidates also won in Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. Last week, Trump described their victories as “the greatest threat to our country since its founding.”On Saturday, Trump was scheduled to address a crowd on the National Mall before a massive fireworks display amid an intense heat wave that disrupted Fourth of July celebrations across a large swath of the country. At Mount Rushmore, the temperature was a cold 18 degrees Celsius. (This is a Reuters report)
