Trump hails ‘America’s golden age’ in speech marking nation’s 250th birthday | Washington, D.C.

Donald Trump hailed America’s “unparalleled achievements and limitless potential” in a triumphalist speech marking the country’s 250th anniversary.

In a campaign speech in Washington DC on Saturday, the US president said his country was “just getting started” and pledged to take it “to new levels”.

The celebrations were marred by extreme weather, including a dangerous heat wave in recent days and a passing storm that delayed Trump’s speech. An apparent white nationalist march in the streets of Washington also sparked concern.

When he finally appeared, at 11:15 p.m., the president addressed a series of his favorite topics, from promising a new “golden age of America” ​​to repeating unfounded claims of election fraud by his political opponents.

“America is a nation of winners,” Trump said. “Today our country wins again.”

He spoke in front of a vast fireworks display billed by organizers as the largest “in the history of the world” to mark the occasion.

An extreme heat wave on the U.S. East Coast upended some of the long-planned celebrations for the weekend. Saturday’s Independence Day parade in the nation’s capital was abruptly canceled, a day after a parade was also canceled in Philadelphia, where the country’s Declaration of Independence from Great Britain was signed in 1776.

Fireworks explode during celebrations in Washington DC. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Trump’s second inauguration ceremony in January 2025 was the first to be held indoors since 1985, as a surge of arctic air caused temperatures to plummet to freezing levels. On Saturday, as he prepared to speak at the United States’ semi-fiftieth anniversary celebrations in Washington, temperatures exceeded 37.8°C in Washington amid sweltering conditions.

As of 8 p.m., Washington emergency responders had treated 51 people with heat-related issues, 12 of whom were taken to nearby hospitals, according to the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.

But the weather began to change after the first spectators arrived at the venue, who were forced to evacuate for more than two hours for fear of a storm. Rain and lightning followed.

“Storms bring good luck whatever the occasion,” Trump wrote on social media, as thousands reluctantly headed for the exits, vowing to “wait out the end.” Later on stage, Trump said he still would have spoken even if it had been “in front of a person at four in the morning.”

A police officer tells the participants to leave as a storm arrives. Photograph: Allison Robbert/AP

It featured a number of veterans and the crew of the historic Artemis II lunar flyby mission, while recounting some moments in U.S. history. The country is the “hope, the promise, the light and the glory” of the world, Trump said.

He repeatedly tore up convention during the anniversary celebrations, during which a U.S. president is typically expected to rise above the political fray and attempt to strike a chord with citizens of all persuasions. (His living predecessors were notably absent during major events in Washington.)

On Friday evening, in a speech delivered under the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln engraved on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, Trump launched an extraordinary attack on what he called the “communist menace” in America, portraying his supporters as “the enemy of July 4, 1776.”

Trump kicks off America’s 250th birthday weekend with attack on communism – video

He has increasingly sought to portray progressive Democrats as communists who pose an existential threat to the United States, and continued to attack “communism” as he addressed the crowd on Saturday, saying it would never be allowed to “rear its ugly head” in the country.

“We don’t want communists in our country,” the president said. “It has never worked and it never will.”

Trump’s allies have been accused of using the anniversary celebrations to stoke, rather than heal, the country’s divisions — and of turning a historically nonpartisan moment of patriotism into a political propaganda vehicle.

A high-security perimeter was set up around the venue of Trump’s speech, in the shadow of the Washington Monument. Thousands of National Guard troops are stationed across the city, following an increase in recent weeks.

Behind the stage, just out of sight, is the reflecting pool. The president ordered a $14.7 million renovation to make the site “American flag blue” in time for the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations, an effort thwarted by a vast algae bloom that turned it green. Trump and his officials blamed the project’s woes on vandals.

The president, who had previously expressed concern about the size of the crowds he had drawn to the National Mall, had urged Americans to come see what he promised would be “the greatest show of them all” on Saturday night.

“Your favorite president will be speaking. So please show up,” Trump said as he kicked off the Great American State Fair in late June. If that wasn’t enough, he claimed the fireworks display that would ensue would be “10 times bigger” than anything ever done on American soil.

After seeking to highlight examples of American perseverance and strength over the past two and a half centuries, Trump cited Saturday’s weather — and the way many revelers returned after being sent away — as an example of the nation’s resilience.

“You heard it’s over,” he told the crowd. “And what happened? You came back.”

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