Trump set for Mount Rushmore address as US turns 250

MOUNT RUSHMORE, United States – US President Donald Trump was at Mount Rushmore on July 3 to kick off America’s 250th birthday celebrations with a speech delivered at the foot of the iconic monument with its giant carved heads of four of his legendary predecessors.

Trump’s speech will be “inspiring and optimistic” and focused on the theme of what it means to be an American, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters ahead of the US leader’s arrival.

She added that the remarks will also “serve as a fierce rebuke to Communism”, a theme the president has repeatedly hammered home in recent weeks.

At every stage, the 80-year-old Republican has sought to turn the United States’ big anniversary into a celebration of himself.

The location of Trump’s speech – a landmark upon which many suspect he would like to see his own face carved into rock – strikes a fitting image for a president who views himself as being one of the greats.

Trump’s supporters have even introduced legislation to have his likeness chiselled beside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

On July Fourth, Trump will hold a campaign-style political rally on the National Mall in Washington, along with flyovers by military jets and what he has billed as the world’s biggest fireworks display.

For Trump – the billionaire former reality TV star who became the consummate political showman – taking centre stage is in his blood.

“Trump likes the spotlight, and I think he’s trying to take the spotlight,” Peter Loge, director of George Washington University’s School of Media, told AFP.

But America under Trump is deeply divided at what should be a time of national unity.

Trump’s approval ratings are near historic lows, fuelled largely by the war in Iran and the skyrocketing cost of living.

His Democratic opponents have castigated him over his immigration policies, family’s growing wealth and attempts to expand presidential power.

In an appearance posted on July 3 on second lady Usha Vance’s podcast, Trump alluded to the sense of national division when he was asked why children should go out and celebrate on the July 4 anniversary.

“We have a great country. We have a country that is under a little bit of a ledge right now,” he said. “It can go one way or another, you understand that, but we’re going to go the other.”

Trump’s attempts to stamp his political brand on America’s 250th anniversary have, meanwhile, not always gone to plan.

A Trump-linked organisation called Freedom 250 has taken control of many of the festivities from the bipartisan America250 group, leading many people to stay away from key events.

A “Great American State Fair” in the capital designed as a celebration of the country’s birthday has drawn sparse crowds and widespread mockery for its empty booths.

A record-breaking heat wave also kept many visitors away, while those who braved sizzling temperatures Friday morning had to squeeze themselves into small slivers of shade outside pavilions.

Trump declared himself undeterred by the heat.

“On July 4 it’s going to be approximately 107 degrees (41 deg C) out, and I’m going to go and I’m going to make a really long speech – just to show that I can do anything,” he said on July 1.

As the United States marks two-and-a-half centuries of triumphs and tragedies, slavery and freedom, civil war and world wars, surveys show the nation is pessimistic about the chances of realising the “American Dream”.

A Quinnipiac University Poll on July 2 showed 61 per cent of Americans thought the US was not living up to the ideals stated in the Declaration of Independence – though even opinion on that was divided, with most Republicans thinking it did, and most Democrats thinking it did not.

“The Fourth of July really is a moment of freedom, but I have to be honest, in these political times, it hasn’t been as exciting to me,” Amy Kimaara, a 49-year-old special education teacher, told AFP in Los Angeles.

Increasingly, Trump is using the 250th anniversary celebrations as a platform to rally political support for Republicans – and himself – ahead of crucial US midterm elections in November. AFP