President Trump kicked off the nation’s 250th birthday celebration with a speech at Mount Rushmore that broke sharply from the tradition of nonpartisan, unifying remarks that past presidents have delivered on Independence Day.
Rather than sticking to the kind of broadly patriotic themes typically associated with such milestone occasions, Trump’s address mixed messages of American exceptionalism with stark warnings about the threat of communism.
The speech drew attention for how dramatically it differed in tone and content from the apolitical Independence Day addresses that have been a hallmark of previous administrations.
