Trump launches America’s 250th birthday celebrations with partisan attack

Trump has repeatedly sought to cast progressive Democrats as communists in recent weeks. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Trump has repeatedly sought to cast progressive Democrats as communists in recent weeks. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Trump launches America’s 250th birthday celebrations with partisan attack In a speech at Mount Rushmore on Friday evening, the US president claimed a resurgent ‘communist menace’ posed a severe threat the country Donald Trump has kicked off America’s 250th birthday weekend with an extraordinary partisan attack on what he called the “communist menace” in America, framing its supporters as “the enemy of July 4th, 1776”. Only Donald Trump could make America’s special 250th birthday all about him Read more The US president spoke for half an hour on Friday night at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, the latest stop on his tour celebrating the milestone anniversary of the US declaration of independence from Britain. Greeted by chants of “USA! USA!” and briefly interrupted by a flyover of F-16 jets, Trump praised the four presidents whose faces are carved into the granite mountain : George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. “They were men of action, men of ambition, men of daring, men of destiny, and men of truly great intelligence,” said Trump, who has never ruled out the idea of his own face being added to Mount Rushmore. “Above all, they were the great men of history.” The president asserted that US exceptionalism is rooted not only in its constitution, but its distinctive culture and identity. He condemned recent attempts to “beat the American spirit out of us” and “alienate us from our history”, vowing to an overwhelmingly white crowd: “We are going to give our country its identity back.” Trump then abandoned any pretence of making a traditional head of state’s speech designed to rise above the fray, unify political parties and strike a chord with citizens of all persuasions. View image in fullscreen Trump has never ruled out the idea of his own face being added to Mount Rushmore Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Instead, four months ahead of November’s midterm elections for US Congress, he picked up on a theme he has repeatedly hammered lately : casting progressive Democrats as communists, who pose an existential threat to America. He was speaking hours after Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York and a democratic socialist, delivered a pro-immigrant address widely seen as a rebuke of Trump and his “Make America great again” movement. Four progressive ​candidates, including three democratic socialists, won ​Democratic primaries in New York last week ​and in Colorado on Tuesday. Progressive candidates have also won contests in Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania ​and Texas. Trump also tied his anti-communist rhetoric to the anti-immigrant theme that fuelled his election. “As we approach this magnificent anniversary, we see