US President Donald Trump opened 16 days of celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary Wednesday with a rally-style speech – turning a national commemoration into a highly politicised showcase for his second-term agenda.
The address, on Washington’s National Mall, underscored how Trump has reshaped the anniversary around his own brand of politics and showmanship, blurring the line between official celebration and campaign-style spectacle.
The Republican leader eventually invoked the grand sweep of American history, but the first part of his address was largely indistinguishable from one of his political rallies – albeit delivered in a more subdued tone.
“As we stand on the edge of our 250th year of independence, I am thrilled to declare that America is back,” Trump said, reworking a familiar rallying cry.
“And, as you know very well, a short time ago, we were a dead country. We were dead. Now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world.”
Trump began with the Middle East, framing the unpopular and widely criticised US-Israeli war with Iran as a major victory for Americans, and called the US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro one of the “great military raids in history”.
