“I am pleased to report that yesterday, federal agents arrested the suspected ringleader of the attack on the statue of the great Andrew Jackson in Washington, D.C.”
This is how the President started his rally at Mount Rushmore on Friday, in what was a clear attempt to drive a “full-on culture war,” according to a report from the New York Times.
Trump’s remarks at the event, where he was joined on stage by family and staffers who wore no masks, were mostly about riling up his base against the ongoing movement for racial justice—which has included the toppling of monuments to bigotry.
“As we meet here tonight, there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard far,” said Trump. “Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.”
“They think the American people are weak, and soft, and submissive,” added the President, making it obvious for the umpteenth time that he believes ‘American’ is synonymous with white.
Ironically, the event was marked with protests from Native Americans, including members of the Sioux tribe—from whom the sacred Black Hills were stolen by the U.S. government and then made into a veneration of white men with the help of a KKK member.
The demonstrators at Mt. Rushmore yesterday were arrested and pepper-sprayed by police, Business Insider reports, because This Is America.
“The American people are strong and proud, and they will not allow our country and all of its values, history, and culture, to be taken from them,” Trump continued from the stage.
Those values apparently include celebrating the goodness of men like Thomas Jefferson, who notoriously raped and impregnated Sally Hemmings, a child who was his slave.
For some reason Trump spoke at length about Jefferson at the rally, lauding the enslaver as the “author of American freedom.”
As evidenced by the fact that no one on stage with the President wore masks, Trump did not even pretend to care that there is a pandemic currently happening and taking the lives of Americans by the thousands.
From New York Times:
As the president departed Washington for South Dakota on Friday, at least five states — Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, North Carolina and South Carolina — reported their highest single day of cases yet. Newly reported cases of the virus were rising in all but a handful of states, and many large cities, including Houston, Dallas, Jacksonville and Los Angeles, were seeing alarming growth.
Mr. Trump planned to follow up his trip with a “Salute to America” celebration on Saturday on the South Lawn at the White House, marked by a military flyover and the launch of 10,000 fireworks on the National Mall.
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser has reportedly said that the President’s planned gathering in the nation’s capital today violates federal guidelines, but safety protocols put out by its own government don’t seem to matter much to the Trump Administration.
“The C.D.C. guidelines, I’d also note, say ‘recommended,’ but not required,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said of safety concerns earlier this week. “We are very much looking forward to the Fourth of July celebration.”
Though Trump’s team is publicly pretending coronavirus does not exist, the virus continues to make its presence known among them.
According to the Times, Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle flew to South Dakota for the President’s Mt. Rushmore rally and then had to turn right back around after she tested positive for COVID-19.