In actual bluffs, Trump ranted at Mount Rushmore last night that “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 communist newcomers “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.”
It’s not newcomers who threaten our way of life and success. Communists take away rights and spy on their people. That sounds a lot like what the Trump/Musk billionaire cabal are doing to the rest of us, newcomers and descendants of newcomers alike, who are just working for a living and hoping we can get a little help with our insurance premiums.
It’s not the newcomers who show no respect for law, justice, principle, tradition, or God-/Gaia-/mere existence-given rights. It’s Donald Trump himself. Trump has no ideology other than self, but he is engaged in theft, control, lies, and murder.
I don’t see a resurgent communist menace here on America’s semiquincentennial. But the “communism” Trump described last night sounds exactly like what Trump himself is doing to imperil America’s chances of reaching its tricentennial.
More bitter irony:
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 and pillage our nation [emphasis mine; Donald Trump, speech, Mount Rushmore, 2026.07.03, transcript from Singju Post].
Related July Fourthery: Here, listen to a Republican President who’s not a complete jerk talk more truthfully and respectfully of the values that should bring all Americans together on Independence Day:
Q: What does July 4th mean to you this year?
President Bush: July 4th is a chance to celebrate our independence and our freedoms. We’ve celebrated a lot of July 4ths in our nation’s history, and yet the values that unite us are still as strong as ever.
Q: What are your memories of the 1976 bicentennial, and what it meant to our country?
President Bush: Well, I remember the bicentennial in 1976. Gerald Ford was the president. It was a grand occasion during a difficult time in America, and it’s a time where Americans put aside their differences and united in realizing how fortunate we are to live in a country that heralds the freedoms that we uphold.
Q: What unites our country as we celebrate 250 years?
President Bush: I view the freedoms that we cherish, the freedom to worship the way you want to worship, the freedom for the press to hold the powerful to account, the freedom to vote, the freedom to realize dreams as values that can unite us as we head for the next 250 years.
Q: What gives you hope for our next 250 years?
President Bush: One of the facets of our society that is overlooked too often is the fact that there are many people, particularly the young, who are willing to help a neighbor in need, who man homeless shelters or help with soup kitchens without the government telling them to do so. They’re motivated by love of their fellow citizens. It is what I call the “armies of compassion.” I’m pleased to report the “armies of compassion” remain strong today, and so long as they do remain strong, I’m very optimistic about the future of the next generation.
Q: What will our future success require?
President Bush: The next 250 years require Americans to be citizens, not spectators. [It] requires Americans to take an active interest in the health and welfare of our country and the communities in which they live, the schools, and the churches. It requires Americans to vote to be involved in the democratic process. You may not like the outcomes of the elections, but one should focus on the fact that the capacity to vote to determine our country’s future is a powerful freedom, which we should honor [President George W. Bush, “President George W. Bush Reflects on America at 250,” George W. Bush Presidential Center, 2026.07.03].