Donald Trump's speech descends into nightmare fuel as America celebrates 250th birthday

Donald Trump's speech descends into nightmare fuel as America celebrates 250th birthday The US President spoke at Mount Rushmore last night, the penultimate stop in his tour to mark 250 years since America declared independence. It was filled with blood and soil-lite rhetoric about the "American character" - and a chilling threat to his political opponents Donald Trump celebrated America's 250th birthday with an alarming and nakedly partisan speech in front of Mount Rushmore last night. Dramatically failing to rise to the occasion, Trump began his remarks with a decidedly selective history of America and a culture wars-based veneration of its people - or at least, of his people. But it quickly descended into a preview of how many fear he's planning to overturn a thrashing in November's midterm elections and subjugate his political enemies. Here's a round-up of the key moments of the speech, and some of the reaction. His speech started with blood and soil-lite rhetoric Speaking before one of the nation's most beloved national monuments, Trump gave a nativist, almost enthnonationalist speech, painting Americans as a particular "breed", tracing their identities back to "Athens, Jerusalem and Rome", and conveniently ignoring a few elements of the national character. "America has a destiny like no other because we are a people like no other," he said. "For whatever reason, that's just the way it is." He said the "old world" had sent "its bravest, boldest, and most resilient, its fiercest, most faithful, and freedom loving. These men and women brought values, traditions, and customs transmitted over the centuries in Britain and stretching back even further to Athens, Jerusalem, and Rome." He left out the bit where these men and women also brought other men and women, whom they owned. "On the grounds and granite hills and the rugged plains of this wide open continent," he continued, apparently forgetting the 18 million or so indigenous people already living in America before the settlers put their socks on. He continued: "...they forged a uniquely American character, a new breed of citizen. That's you." If you cut this speech open, it would say "WRITTEN BY STEPHEN MILLER" all the way through. Miller, for those lucky enough to be unaware of Trump's ghoulish deputy chief of staff, is the author of many of the administration's more alarming policies and positions. His ideology has been widely described by civil rights groups as ethnonationalist and white supremacist. It descended into a chilling preview of things to come The two most alarming things about Trump's second Presidency are the increasing use of white nationalist rhetoric (check) and how casually the President appears to be preparing for an autocratic "consolidation", at best a Viktor Orban style slide into democracy-in-name-only. A case in point, Trump has been doing everything he can to rig November's midterms - and if he can't, he's looking for as many excuses as possible to ignore and dismiss the results. Chief among these plots is the "SAVE America Act", a bill he's trying to ram through Congress despite stiff opposition. It would demand strict photo ID to register to vote, seize control of voter rolls on an unprecedented scale, and dramatically clamp down on postal voting - which Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed is vulnerable to fraud. In the current system, the bill has zero chance of making it into law - Trump doesn't have the votes he'd need for it to pass a Democratic filibuster. So he's been pressuring the Republicans to abolish the filibuster - a move so risky for the future of the party that it's widely known as the nuclear option. And last night he said the quiet part out loud: "We can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms, if we are foolish, stupid, and unwise. "But if we terminate the filibuster, as we should do, and immediately vote for the SAVE America Act, then we will not lose an election for a hundred years. We do that, we're not going to lose an election for a hundred years." Leaving aside who the "we" is - this was supposed to be a nonpartisan speech to a mixed audience, not a campaign rally - saying out loud that you want to rig the rules to make it impossible for you to lose isn't quite the celebration of democracy we were hoping for on this august occasion. The reds under the bed Another weapon Trump is readying is the "othering" of the Democrats. Not content with his supporters considering their opponents as fellow Americans with whom they have disagreements on policy, Trump is leaving nothing to chance - and seems determined to paint them as, at the very least, un-American. Leaping on recent successes in primaries by left-leaning candidates - championed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani - he branded them "communists" and "Marxists" and a "menace". "As we approach this magnificent anniversary," he said. "We see our American identity under a renewed attack a generation after we fought and won the Cold War against the menace of communism." He went on, baselessly, to suggest left-leaning Democrats were not only evil and wrong, but also foreigners. "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. "These are not mere political disagreements like differences over taxes or regulations. "Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty. It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, or even 911. We're not going to let this happen to us. Believe me, we're not letting it happen. Because communism is the enemy of free people everywhere, everywhere in the world." Believe me when I say a lot of the next 12 months is going to hang on the meaning of the phrase "we're not going to let it happen." This bit was a metaphor...right? Perhaps the most chilling segment was where Trump suggested the "communists" would be "sent into exile". Saying the citizens of the US would "vanquish Communism quickly," he added: "Don't let them take too much of your time. You know they're wasting your time, don't you? But we're not going to let them take up too long or too much of our time as they play their games and send them into exile. We will send them quickly away." Coincidentally, a white nationalist group marched in Washington today White Nationalist group Patriot Front marched in Washington DC this morning. Several hundred men travelled to Union Station wearing masks and carrying a variety of flags, including inverted American flags and confederate banners, and marched down the National Mall, where Trump is hosting his celebration speech tonight, chanting "reclaim America". One streamer described the event as "total Aryan victory." Newsom says Trump is 'declining physically and emotionally' In an interview for the Meidas Touch website, California Governor Gavin Newsom warned Trump is in "physical and emotional decline, and that the "worst is yet to come." "Vigilance doesn't even begin to describe what our posture needs to be over the course of the next few months," he said in the clip. "Across the spectrum, this guy is failing and increasingly flailing, and it's self-evident that decline from a physical, and an emotional, and a sort of cognizant perspective. But the power he continues to wield is real and we have to be absolutely mindful that the worst is yet to come, this is just the beginning."