On the eve of the nation’s 250th birthday, President Donald Trump used his address Friday night at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota to allege that there is “a resurgence of the communist menace in our land.”
“Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty,” Trump said. “It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor or even 9/11.”
Though he did not directly link Democratic socialists to communism in the speech, the rhetoric continued a recent theme of criticism by Trump alluding to electoral successes by Democratic socialist candidates. That includes New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Darializa Avila Chevalier, who upset a Democratic New York City congressman last month in a primary election.
Democratic socialists advocate for expanding parts of the social safety net, such as health care coverage, through democratic means. Communist tenets include central economic planning and abolishing private property.
In Trump’s speech, he pivoted from communism to Republican chances in the November midterm elections.
“America will never be a communist country,” Trump said, adding “we can only lose the midterms” if “we are foolish, stupid and unwise.”
He then said Republicans will “not lose an election for a hundred years” if they terminate the filibuster and pass the SAVE America Act. The filibuster is a U.S. Senate rule that requires the votes of at least 60 senators to limit debate on most bills. The SAVE America Act would require all voters to prove their U.S. citizenship when they register and show identification at the polls.
Trump made those remarks with U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, in the audience. Thune has pledged to protect the filibuster, which he’s called “a critical protection that ensures representation of the minority party in the Senate.”
Last week, Trump canceled a signing ceremony for a bipartisan housing bill and said he wouldn’t sign that legislation until Congress sends him the SAVE Act.
Thune, who did not deliver a speech Friday night, responded last week by saying “there are not the votes to nuke the filibuster and there aren’t going to be 10 Democrat votes to all of a sudden support the SAVE America Act. Those are just hard realities and I think people at some point have to come to grips with that.”
Earlier in Trump’s speech, he called Thune “a good friend of mine and all of us.” Thune met Trump earlier at Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City when Air Force One landed there.
Trump’s keynote address was preceded by brief remarks from South Dakota Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who formerly served as governor of North Dakota. A fireworks display followed the speeches.
Rain dampens afternoon ceremonies
Entertainment at the memorial began hours earlier for 4,800 people who obtained tickets months ago in an online lottery. The lineup included the U.S. Air Force Academy Band.
Ron Emerson, 60, planned his Fourth of July weekend trip to the mountain carving before he had tickets. He drove 28 hours from Willis, Texas, to western South Dakota earlier this week.
Before Trump’s speech, Emerson said he’s concerned about the spread of socialist and communist ideas.
“It’s a capitalist country and it should stay that way, I think,” Emerson said.
His mother, Mary Lou Emerson, 84, hadn’t visited Mount Rushmore since she was in fifth grade. She’s been “very sad to see a lot of things that are happening” since then, she said, “but we still have hope for America.”
The fireworks display was a signature event of Trump’s Freedom 250 planning group, which he created with an executive order. Another group coordinating events celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, America 250, is a bipartisan committee created by Congress in 2016.
A nearby lightning storm Friday afternoon pushed people indoors before the programming started, with hundreds cramming into the memorial’s cafeteria. After a momentary reprieve from the weather, heavy rain began to fall, prompting a second call from event officials for people to head indoors. Thunder, hail and heavy rain continued for over an hour.
Many ticketholders came dressed in patriotic garb, including red, white and blue apparel and hats, pins and shirts supporting Trump.
Toby Doeden, who faces Rhoden in the July 28 runoff election for South Dakota’s Republican nomination for governor, was in attendance Friday night as an audience member.
A few dignitaries received recognition from Trump during his speech. Those included Thune, U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, Rhoden, Republican South Dakota Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen, Burgum and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Environmental concerns about fireworks
Trump also spoke at the last iteration of Mount Rushmore fireworks in 2020. That year, his address criticized efforts across the country to remove statues of Confederate Civil War leaders. Those efforts came amid a broader racial justice movement after a police officer’s murder of a Black man, George Floyd, in May 2020 in Minneapolis.
The 2020 fireworks show was the first in 11 years. Fireworks displays were approved at the memorial in the 1990s and early 2000s, but disallowed by the National Park Service beginning in 2010.
Internal assessments and environmental studies reflected concerns about embers falling in the surrounding Black Hills National Forest and sparking wildfires, chemicals from fireworks polluting local water sources, and litter from exploded fireworks lingering on the grounds.
The fireworks shows have also been opposed by Native American tribes that formerly controlled the Black Hills and still use the area for spiritual ceremonies. During the 2020 event, a Native American-led protest blocked the road leading to Mount Rushmore, resulting in a clash with law enforcement that ended in arrests. Charges were later dropped.
Trump reinstated the fireworks in 2020 at then-Gov. Kristi Noem’s request. He said then that “nobody knew why” the fireworks shows had ended. Trump’s Department of the Interior, which includes the Park Service, approved the fireworks again this year after the Biden administration had discontinued them.
No protesters showed up this time in a First Amendment zone designated by the Park Service. The area was about 2 miles below Mount Rushmore along a highway on the edge of the town of Keystone, in the same area as the 2020 protests.
New concerns, costs
Environmental and cultural concerns remained this year. Parts of Pennington County — where Mount Rushmore is located — are in severe or extreme drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The Park Service relied on a six-year-old environmental assessment, updated with some new information, when considering whether to approve the fireworks display this year.
The new information included a potential for negatively affecting northern long-eared bats, an endangered species, and tricolored bats, which have been proposed for listing as endangered. Both species live near the mountain and have experienced severe population declines from a fungal disease known as white-nose syndrome.
Impacts of fireworks noise on bat pups who recently learned to fly could range from temporary stress to separation from their mothers and even death, the environmental assessment said.
South Dakota’s Department of Tourism entered into a $700,000 contract in April with California-based Pyro Spectaculars to produce the fireworks show. Local, state and federal authorities will pay additional costs related to traffic control, security, wildfire prevention and other aspects of the event.
A Government Accountability Office report estimated that the total cost of the 2020 event was about $4 million, with the state’s share surpassing $1 million.
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