‘Salute to America’
President uses patriotic theme on a rainy Fourth
Tanks, protests and fireworks, oh my!
Thousands gathered Thursday in the nation’s capital to celebrate the birth of America for its annual fireworks event, which this year was to feature Army tanks, a flyover of military jets, Air Force One and fireworks.
Protesters, unimpressed by Trump’s “Salute to America,” were ready for the event.
In the shadow of the Washington Monument, the anti-war organization Codepink erected a 20-foot tall “Trump baby” balloon to protest what it called the president’s co-opting of Independence Day.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump celebrated “the greatest political journey in human history” Thursday in a Fourth of July commemoration before a soggy, cheering crowd of spectators, many of them invited, on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial. Supporters welcomed his tribute to the U.S. military while protesters assailed him for putting himself center stage on a holiday devoted to unity.
Trump called on Americans to “stay true to our cause” in a “Salute to America” program that adhered to patriotic themes and hailed an eclectic mix of history’s heroes, from the armed forces, space, civil rights and other endeavors of American life. He largely stuck to his script, avoiding diversions into his agenda or re-election campaign.
A late afternoon downpour drenched the capital’s Independence Day crowds and presaged an evening of possible onand-off storms. But Trump’s speech unfolded in occasional rain and the warplanes he had summoned conducted flyovers as planned.
By adding his own, one-hour production to capital festivities that typically draw hundreds of thousands anyway, Trump became the first president in nearly seven decades to address a crowd at the National Mall on Independence Day.
Protesters objecting to what they saw as his co-opting of the holiday inflated a roly-poly balloon depicting Trump as an angry, diaper-clad baby.
Trump set aside a historic piece of real estate – a stretch of the Mall from the Lincoln Monument to the midpoint of the reflecting pool – for a mix of invited military members, Republican and Trump donors and other bigwigs.
In the shadow of the Washington Monument hours before Trump’s speech, the anti-war organization Codepink erected a 20-foot tall “Trump baby” balloon to protest the event.
Protesters also handed out small Trump-baby balloons on sticks. Molly King of La Porte, Indiana, a 13-year-old Trump supporter in sunglasses and sporting a “Make America Great Again” hat, happily came away with one.
“They’re making a big stink about it but it’s actually pretty cute,” she said. “I mean, why not love your president as you’d love a baby?”
A small crowd gathered to take pictures with the big balloon, which drew Trump supporters and detractors.
“Even though everybody has different opinions,” said Kevin Malton, a Trump supporter from Middlesboro, Kentucky, “everybody’s getting along.”
Trump glossed over the expense of shipping tanks and fighting vehicles to Washington by rail and guarding them for several days, and other costs.
Pete Buttigieg, one of the Democrats running for presiden and a Navy veteran, said: “this business of diverting money and military assets to use them as a kind of prop, to prop up a presidential ego, is not reflecting well on our country.”