Breaking News: President Trump delivered a dark and divisive speech at Mount Rushmore, leaning into the culture wars and barely mentioning the pandemic.https://t.co/03WOgau4Zx
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 4, 2020
Another rotten speech, sparsely attended and delivered by some guy who slurs his words.
— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) July 4, 2020
The NYT news section reported:
Throughout his presidency, Mr. Trump has tried to bend events to his will, often using social media to drive home his alternate version of reality and, thanks to the power of repetition and the loyal support of his base, sometimes succeeding. But the president’s attempt to drive deeper into the culture wars around a national holiday, during an intensifying health crisis that will not yield to his tactics, risked coming across as out of sync with the concerned mood of the country at a moment when his re-election campaign is struggling and unfocused.
Thanks for the campaign advice, Times.
Here’s Trump’s list of new statues to be put up by July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the country:
“The National Garden should be composed of statues, including statues of John Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Daniel Boone, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Henry Clay, Davy Crockett, Frederick Douglass, Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Franklin, Billy Graham, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Douglas MacArthur, Dolley Madison, James Madison, Christa McAuliffe, Audie Murphy, George S. Patton, Jr., Ronald Reagan, Jackie Robinson, Betsy Ross, Antonin Scalia, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, George Washington, and Orville and Wilbur Wright.”
Lincoln, Jefferson, George Washington, and Martin Luther King already have their own lavish memorials in Washington D.C. (although King’s is pretty bad), but among the Founding Fathers, Franklin, Hamilton, Adams, and Madison are under-monumented in D.C. I’d be open to adding Tom Paine for the left and, say, Patrick Henry for the anti-Federalist right. Clay is a giant who is hazy in the public’s mind, so that’s a good choice. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois would make a good pair since they didn’t agree on much.
The National Statuary Hall in the Capitol building doesn’t get all that much attention. It has an eclectic collection of 100 statues chosen by each of the 50 states. States are constantly kicking old statues out and replacing them with new statues. Reagan has been in since California sent him in 2009. Utah is kicking out Philo T. Farnsworth in favor of some lady politician.
