Trump at Mount Rushmore
An important speech for America’s 250th:
Plenty of activities are now underway in the United States as Americans celebrate their semiquincentennial. Sadly, however, many people – including too many Americans – do not even know what is being celebrated. They know little or nothing about the birth of America.
That is why I just penned a piece explaining what Independence Day – the Fourth of July – is all about, and why the Declaration of Independence is so very important. See that piece here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2026/07/04/happy-birthday-america/
On July 3 President Donald Trump delivered a speech at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Some notable features of his talk are worth mentioning here. First, one can mention the length of his speech. Unlike most of his speeches (usually at least an hour), this one was relatively short (around 26 minutes). He seems to have stuck closer to the script than he normally does.
Second, God was mentioned ten times in Trump’s speech. Here is one example:
Our rights were given to us by the God who made us and those rights shall not be infringed. Americans believe in self-reliance. We look at success with envy not, and I say that, some people are envious and some people are not. We are not, but with admiration and we earn it and we will always earn it and we will always respect it. We are an incredible, good, kind, and generous people, always ready to help a friend or a neighbor in need.
And another:
Americans did not bow before a king or a government, but kneeled only before Almighty God. That’s right. These were the people who founded our republic. These were the patriots who fought for independence. This was the spirit that demanded freedom and this was the culture that built America and carved its heroes into Mount Rushmore.
Third, with radical socialists and communists being elected in various places in America (not least of which Mamdani in NYC), Trump spent a good amount of time discussing the threat of Marxism and how it must not be allowed to exist in America. Here is a lengthy part of his talk on this matter:
You must love our country. There has never been anything like us anywhere on earth and we are not going to let anyone take that away. Yet as we approach this magnificent anniversary, we see our American identity under a renewed attack, a generation after we fought and won the Cold War against the menace of communism.
There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success. These are not mere political disagreements like differences over taxes or regulations. Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty.
It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, or even 9/11. Uh, we’re not gonna let this happen to us. Believe me, we’re not letting it happen. Because communism is the enemy of free people everywhere, everywhere in the world. Never works. It’s the enemy of the Constitution.
Above all, it’s the enemy of July 4th, 1776. It is the enemy indeed. Even while the radicals and extremists attack our incredible history at every turn, they are silent on the miserable history of communism itself because it never worked. Thousands of years, if you look at it under different names, under somewhat different ideologies and systems, that system has led to more death and destruction than any system ever tried.
It killed 100 million people just in the last century alone. Communism is the exact opposite of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s death, tyranny, and the pursuit of evil. The godless communist morality states that anything is justified to bring about inhuman visions and a pro- — and to really propose what’s good.
They don’t want good. They don’t love God and they don’t want God. They don’t love religion and they don’t want religion, and they won’t have it, but we will not let them win. They have no chance against us. They have no respect for law, justice, principle, tradition, or your God-given rights. It’s an ideology of mass theft, mass control, mass lies, and mass murder.
Such doctrines can be given no quarter in a democracy because the first thing they do when they get into power is turn around and destroy it. It always is destroyed just as communists have done in other countries all over the world, no matter where you look. Very simply, communism represents the worst ideas and abuses in history by the worst people.
The American founding represents the best ideas and traditions in history by the best people, like you. 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. As for those who pedal Marx’s lies about our heritage, who tell our children that we live on stolen land or that our heroes were oppressors.
They’re doing something much worse than slandering our past, they are slandering and attacking our future. Not gonna let that happen. They’re trying to tear down the great American character to destroy the people who declared independence, who crossed to Delaware, who settled the west and conquered the skies.
You know who those people are. But we will never let that happen. 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. Our heroes died to win, build and to save, and to build truly a great country, the greatest country ever in the world. [Audience members call out “USA”] So on the eve of this 250th anniversary of American heritage, we resolve and swear for all to hear that the citizens of the United States of America will vanquish communism quickly.
Don’t let them take too much of your time. You know they’re wasting your time, don’t you? But we’re not gonna let them take too long or too much of our time as they play their games and send them into exile. We will send them quickly away and we will continue to build our country bigger and better and stronger than ever before. America will never be a communist country.
Fourth, this was an upbeat and optimistic speech. Unlike the Democrats who only seem to badmouth America, Trump, Maga and all that most Americans value and treasure, Trump highlighted all the good of America – the achievements, the triumphs, the greatness, and the wins. Here is a part of this:
Tomorrow we mark 250 years of glorious independence and 250 years of majestic American freedom.
Nothing like it. In all the Chronicles of the ages, never before has any nation celebrated so magnificent a triumph as this one, the one that we are participating in right now. 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, and it is great to be your president. It is great. For a quarter of a millennium, liberty, justice, equality, self-government, and unmatched prosperity have flourished here as they have never flourished anywhere before.
There is nothing like what we are doing. 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. That is ever, ever, ever. No other country has done more good for this world than the United States of America.
And we give thanks for these extraordinary blessings. We remember that what we have created in this country is not the natural way of the world. It is not the norm. It is the exception. It is rare. It is priceless, and it is truly miraculous. Throughout the entire story of humanity, most people in most places have lived a life plagued by suffering, poverty, exploitation, violence, and misery.
But here in America, in this land on this continent, we have written a very different story. It’s a tale of adventure, liberation, and unmatched greatness. It’s the story of people governing themselves. The many uniting as one, the men and women rising by their own skill and talent to go further and reach higher than anyone has ever gone before.
There has never been anything like this. The triumph of American independence was the result of the most extraordinary people in history, the most extraordinary culture in history, and the most extraordinary ideas in history, all creating the most extraordinary republic ever, ever, ever in history. It all came together for the miracle of July 4th, 1776. That was a big year. 250 years ago tomorrow, what a big day that is. I consider this a big day because I’m with you.
The full speech can be read here:
It can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pfGOBUsHwU
Thank you President Trump.
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Thanks for posting this, Bill!
It was a heartening read.
I always think it is strange that, though America has a huge influence on the world, including Australia, we didn’t learn a scrap of their history in my 12 years of state education.
Thanks Lauren.