“We stand beneath the monument of these heroes, a true group of unbelievable people, and we rededicate ourselves to being a nation as big, bold, noble, and as great as these American giants, and that’s not easy to do, but we’re going to do it,” Trump said at the granite mountain in South Dakota where the heads of four American presidents are carved.
“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,” he said. “We’re not going to let this happen.”
Trump has been making such points about gains by democratic socialists for a week now, but he made his most pointed and prolonged argument on that theme on Friday, coming as Americans grapple with persistent inflation and high gas prices since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The location of Trump’s speech – a landmark upon which many suspect he would like to see his own face carved into rock – strikes a fitting image for a president who views himself as being one of the greats.
Trump’s supporters have even introduced legislation to have his likeness chiseled beside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
Increasingly uneasy that the Middle East conflict could cost the party control of at least one chamber of Congress in November’s midterm elections, Republican lawmakers have seized on a recent string of successes by left-wing Democratic candidates.
Trump said that the threat also came from “newcomers to our country,” tying his anti-communist rhetoric to the anti-immigrant theme that fuelled his election and has been historically part of the criticism of communism in the United States.
He at one point on Friday said the newcomers need to be expelled.
“We resolve and swear for all to hear that the citizens of the United States of America will vanquish communism quickly … We will send them quickly away, and we will continue to build our country bigger and better, stronger than ever before. America will never be a communist country!” Trump said, before seguing immediately into the issue at hand.
“We can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms.”
Four progressive candidates, including three democratic socialists, won competitive Democratic primaries in New York City last week and in Colorado on Tuesday.
Progressive candidates have also won contests in Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Trump last week called their victories “the greatest threat to our country since its founding.” (AP/AFP)
