Donald Trump had grand designs for America’s 250th anniversary. A sprawling state fair on the National Mall. Military fly-overs galore. The most powerful fireworks display known to man. And, most importantly, a primetime speech from the president himself, one he promised would be “really long” in what seemed like a direct challenge to the implement weather forecasted to hit Washington, D.C., on the Fourth of July.
The weather was indeed inclement. The heat led to the cancellation of the Independence Day Parade, and later in the day incoming thunderstorms led to the evacuation of the National Mall. It was a chaotic scene, but Trump vowed to soldier on, claiming on Truth Social that he’d wait until 2:00 a.m. if he had to, and that, actually, storms mean good luck. “It’s Saturday night, LET’S HAVE SOME FUN,” he wrote.
Trump toggled from party boy to brave patriot warrior as the night wore on. Bret Baier of Fox News recalled telling Trump that he may not be talking to very many people if he delayed his speech to the early hours of the morning. Trump was undeterred: “He said, ‘I don’t care. It’s America 250. If they can storm the beaches of D-Day on D-Day, I can deliver a speech and keep this program going.’”
Trump evoking D-Day before giving a rally speech is absurd, but it wasn’t the only bizarre reference to history he made as he tried to commemorate the nation’s semiquincentennial.
He started with the nation’s founding. The First Amendment lays out the right to practice religion, and the founders explicitly called for the separation of church and state. Trump the the Republican Party, however, have long pushed the idea that America is for Christians first and foremost, and that everyone else should be grateful to be here if not forcibly eradicated. Trump clumsily brought God into his telling of the story of America on Saturday.
“As our Declaration of Independence tells us, we are all made in the image of one almighty god,” he said, adding that “a communist will never say that, that’s for sure.”
He’s right about the last part, at least, because the Declaration of Independence does not say this. The closest it comes is saying that “all men are created equal” and that they are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Trump continued to demonstrate his historical bona fides by noting that the Civil War — particularly someone escaping slavery and joining the Union army — was “a very big, big deal at the time.”
It may have been a big deal at the time, but not as much anymore, apparently, as Trump and his administration have taken great pains to rehabilitate the image of Confederate figureheads — from restoring their names to military bases to ensuring their statues are keep in pristine shape.
Trump can’t speak eloquently about history because he couldn’t care less about it. He cares about himself, and his rambling rally speech on Saturday is far from the only way he’s tried to make the nation’s 250th anniversary a celebration of Trump. He thinks he is America and that the federal government — its levers of power and the taxpayer money it collects — is his to use as he see fits. It’s why he and his cronies keep getting richer and richer while the rest of the nation remains mired in a cost-of-living crisis.
Happy birthday, America!
