Trump urges voter ID law, warns of communism in delayed July 4 speech
President Donald Trump's address marking the 250th anniversary of US independence was delayed by severe storms, but he used the rescheduled speech to call for new voting restrictions and to attack communism.
Storm delay and evacuation
Severe thunderstorms forced the evacuation of the National Mall in Washington D.C. on the evening of July 4, delaying the main celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence. Organisers urged the large crowd to find adequate shelter, and the gates were reopened only shortly before Trump's speech, which began around 11 p.m. local time, more than two hours later than planned. The president later joked that he would have spoken even to a single person at four in the morning.
They saw a lightning and I said: there's no way that, even if we have to speak in front of one person at four in the morning, I can't be here.
- National Mall evacuated due to risk of violent thunderstorms.
- Gates reopen; crowd returns shortly before Trump's speech.
- Trump begins his address, more than two hours behind schedule.
- Fireworks display lights up the sky over Washington D.C.
Military might and anti-communist rhetoric
From the stage, Trump declared that Iranian armed forces had been "annihilated" during this year's war and proclaimed that America is winning again. He linked Cold War imagery to the present, saying the stars and stripes had relegated the hammer and sickle to oblivion before and would do so again if necessary. Communism, he said, had shown its horrible face right here in America.
It's like a cancer: you have to eradicate it, and you have to do it quickly.
He also insisted that America would never become a communist country and that he had defended the Second Amendment with extreme firmness during his nearly six years in office.
Push for the Save America Act
A central policy demand of the speech was the passage of the Save America Act, currently blocked in Congress. Trump said the law would require all voters to present a valid ID and proof of citizenship, and would eliminate mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military deployment or travel.
All voters will have to show a valid ID to vote. All voters will have to provide a small document called proof of citizenship. And there will be no more mail-in ballots.
He predicted that the measure would end electoral fraud.
Honouring heroes and looking to space
Trump evoked American heroes from Davy Crockett to the Wright brothers and the Marines who fought at Iwo Jima. He invited veterans on stage to pay tribute to historic flags, including one that flew during D-Day and another draped on Abraham Lincoln's coffin. The crew of the Artemis II spacecraft was presented, with Trump promising a return to the Moon and a journey onward to Mars.
We will go to the Moon and from there continue to Mars.
Fireworks finale
After the speech, a spectacular fireworks display lit up the night over the National Mall. Adverse weather also forced the cancellation of Independence Day celebrations in Hartford, Connecticut, and in Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
