President Donald Trump delivered a roaring patriotic address at Mount Rushmore on Friday, declaring the United States the “most exceptional nation ever to exist” and vowing America would never become a Communist country.
Speaking beneath the granite likenesses of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt on the eve of America’s 250th anniversary, Trump celebrated American exceptionalism and warned of what he called the greatest threat facing the nation.
“AT 250 YEARS, AMERICA IS THE OLDEST REPUBLIC ON EARTH. WE ARE THE FREEST PEOPLE ON EARTH. WE HAVE THE MOST RIGHTEOUS AND ENDURING CONSTITUTION ON EARTH. WE ARE THE STRONGEST AND MOST POWERFUL COUNTRY ON EARTH. AND BY THE GRACE OF GOD, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL, MOST ACCOMPLISHED, MOST EXCEPTIONAL NATION EVER TO EXIST IN HUMAN HISTORY.”
“In all the chronicles of the ages, never before has any nation celebrated so magnificent a triumph as this one,” Trump told the crowd as festivities marking the nation’s semiquincentennial ramped up across the country.
Trump praised America’s history and argued no other country had achieved as much.
“The birth and survival of the American nation under God is, quite simply, the best and most incredible thing ever to happen on this planet by human hands, ever,” he said. “No other country has done more good for this world than the United States of America.”
Before Trump took the stage, the new Air Force One flew over Mount Rushmore as spectators cheered. After his remarks, the president stayed to watch a fireworks display over the Black Hills.
The president pivoted to what he described as a growing communist movement seeking to undermine America’s “exceptional character” and “alienate us from our history.”
Trump described communism as “the greatest threat” facing the United States — greater than World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, or even 9/11.
“We’re not going to let this happen to us. Believe me, we’re not letting it happen, because communism is the enemy of free people,” Trump said.
“COMMUNISM IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS — IT IS DEATH, TYRANNY AND THE PURSUIT OF EVIL.”
“But we will not let them win,” he added. “They have no chance against us.”
Trump issued a stark choice to the nation: “You can be loyal to Karl Marx, or you can be loyal to America. You can be a communist, or you can be a patriot. You cannot be both.”
He pointed to the nation’s past sacrifices as a guide for its future.
“Our American ancestors did not shed their blood at Concord and Trenton, Gettysburg and Shiloh, Midway and Normandy, just so that a band of thieves, radicals and lunatics could come in and loot, pillage our nation,” Trump said.
Trump highlighted the four presidents carved into the mountain behind him, saying they represented America’s founding ideals.
“They were men of action, men of ambition, men of daring, men of destiny, and men of truly great intelligence,” he said. “Above all, they were great men of history. Tonight, on the threshold of our 250th year, we stand beneath the monument of these heroes, a true group of unbelievable people. And we rededicate ourselves to being a nation as big, bold, noble, and as great as these American giants.”
Trump is scheduled to deliver another speech Saturday on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. before a fireworks display celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary.
“We know that this is not an ending,” Trump said. “This is only the beginning of the golden age of America.”
