In speech, Trump slams enemies within
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to “safeguard our values” from enemies within — leftists, looters and agitators, he said — in a Fourth of July speech packed with all the usual grievances and combativeness of his political rallies.
Mr. Trump watched paratroopers float to the ground in a tribute to America, greeted his audience of front-line medical workers and others central in responding to the coronavirus pandemic, and opened up on those who “slander” him and disrespect the country’s past.
“We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters and the people who, in many instances, have absolutely no clue what they are doing,” he said. “We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children.
“And we will protect and preserve American way of life, which began in 1492 when Columbus discovered America.”
He did not mention the dead from the pandemic. Nearly 130,000 Americans are known to have died from COVID-19.
Even as officials across the country pleaded with Americans to curb their enthusiasm for large Fourth of July crowds, Mr. Trump enticed a crowd with a “special evening” of tribute and fireworks staged as new U.S. coronavirus infections rise.
But the crowds wandering the National Mall for the night’s air show and fireworks were strikingly thinner than those the gathering for last year’s jammed celebration on the Mall.
Many who showed up wore masks, unlike those seated close together for Mr. Trump’s South Lawn event, and social distancing was easy to do for those scattered across the sprawling space.
Mr. Trump did not hesitate to use the country’s birthday as an occasion to assail segments of the country that do not support him.
Carrying on a theme he pounded on a day earlier against the backdrop of Mount Rushmore, he went after those who have torn down statues or think some of them — particularly those of Confederate figures — should be removed. Support has been growing among Republicans to remove Confederate memorials.
“Our past is not a burden to be cast away,” he said.
Outside the event — but as close to it as they could get —
Pat Lee, of Upper Dublin, Pa., gathered with two friends, one of them a nurse from Fredericksburg, Va., who wore a Trump hat.
“POTUS said it would go away,” Ms. Lee said of the pandemic, using an acronym for president of the United States.
“Masks, I think, are like a hoax.” But she said she wore one inside the Trump International Hotel, where she stayed.
Another nurse, Zippy Watt, of Riverside, Calif., came to see the air show and fireworks with her husband and their two daughters, one of whom lives in Washington. They wore matching American flag masks, even when seated together on a park bench.
“We chose to wear a mask to protect ourselves and others,” Ms. Watt said.
In many parts of the country, authorities discouraged mass gatherings for the holiday after days that have seen COVID-19 cases grow at a rate not experienced even during the deadliest phase of the pandemic in the spring.