United States President Donald Trump has used the opening weekend of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations to praise the US military and critique democratic socialists, warning of a “communist menace” that he claims poses a major threat to the country.
Speaking beneath the granite monument at Mount Rushmore on the eve of Independence Day on July 4, Trump invoked national identity and ideology ahead of the November midterm elections.
“We created the strongest and most powerful military. We won two world wars,” he said, claiming that the Cold War had left the US’s enemies “in the depths of history”.
He also said the US “beat Venezuela in one day” and “knocked the hell out of Iran”.