Trump returns to polarizing themes in Fourth of
July address
The president's speech from the White House's South
Lawn marked a sea change from his 2019 address, which largely stuck to
patriotic and not political themes.
By JORDAN
MULLER
07/04/2020
08:18 PM EDT
President
Donald Trump on Saturday railed against protesters, China and the media in an
address marking America's Independence Day — typically a non-partisan
celebration of national unity.
Trump,
whose address largely mimicked the tone of his stump speeches, continued his
attacks on protesters he said are “lying” about American history by calling for
the removal of statues and memorials celebrating slaveholders and colonial and
Confederate figures.
And similar
to his speech at Mount Rushmore on Friday, Trump pledged to defend American
monuments and the country’s “rich heritage.”
“We will
never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history,
indoctrinate our children or trample on our freedoms,” the president said,
assailing protesters as “anarchist agitators” who “have absolutely no clue what
they are doing.”
The
Saturday speech, delivered on July 4 amid the backdrop of a pandemic,
record-high unemployment and nationwide protests, marked a sea change from
Trump’s Independence Day address in 2019, which largely stuck to patriotic and
not political themes.
And as the
president faces questions over his agenda for a potential second term, Trump
hinted that his priorities will remain largely the same: low taxes, a strong
military, religious freedom and law and order.
“We should
all want the same thing,” Trump said.
Trump also
defended his administration’s pandemic response, pinning the blame for the
virus on China.
“We have
the most and finest testing anywhere in the world, and we are producing gowns
and masks and surgical equipment in our country, where heretofore it was almost
exclusively made in foreign lands, in particular China, ironically this virus
and others came from,” Trump said, blaming Chinese “deception” for allowing the
virus to spread.
Trump
devoted a portion of his address to rail at the media, which he claimed without
evidence “falsely and consistently label their opponents as racists.”
“When you
level these false charges, you not only slander me, you not only slander the
American people, but you slander generations of heroes who gave their lives for
America,” Trump said.
The event
in Washington, D.C., featured flyovers by military aircraft and will be capped
off by fireworks on the National Mall. Crowds on the Mall were light Saturday
as officials urged social distancing, TV station WTOP reported.
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