President Donald Trump delivered a forceful, nationally televised rebuke of communism Friday during an Independence Day event at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, warning that the ideology represents a “mortal threat to American liberty.”
Speaking one day before the nation marked its 250th anniversary, Trump described communism as a greater danger to the United States than the World Wars or the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The president used the July 3 address to warn of what he described as a resurgence of communist ideology in the United States. He tied that concern directly to immigration and newcomers who, he claimed, embrace political beliefs fundamentally opposed to American freedom and prosperity.
Trump also drew a sharp distinction between patriotism and Marxist ideology.
“You can be loyal to Karl Marx, or you can be loyal to America,” Trump told the crowd. “You can be a communist, or you can be a patriot. You cannot be both.”
Although Trump did not identify individual political figures by name, his remarks were widely viewed as an attack on Democratic socialist candidates and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party following recent victories in several key primary elections.
The speech also served as a rallying cry ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.
Trump urged Congress to approve his SAVE America Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. He also called for the elimination of the Senate filibuster as part of an effort to maintain Republican control.
The president connected his opposition to communism with his administration’s hardline approach to immigration, promising supporters that the United States would “vanquish communism” and quickly remove or expel those who adhere to ideologies he characterized as anti-American.
Trump’s remarks drew criticism from civil rights advocates and political opponents, who accused him of using the nation’s semiquincentennial celebration to attack his political rivals as “evil” and “godless.”
Critics also argued that his speech echoed the polarizing rhetoric of the Red Scare era during the 1950s.
Others pointed to the location of the address, noting that Mount Rushmore sits in the Black Hills, land that was seized by the federal government from the Sioux Nation in 1877. Critics accused Trump of using the location to promote what they described as a curated and exclusionary version of American history.
Trump, however, presented the speech as a defense of American liberty, patriotism and national identity, drawing a firm line between those values and the communist ideology he said threatens the country.
👍🎆🇺🇲
Happy birthday America!
In God We Trust!