President Donald Trump gave two divisive speeches at Independence Day celebrations this weekend as coronavirus cases surged in several states. Both speeches vaguely gestured at a "left-wing" effort by "bad, evil people" to undermine American ideas and "indoctrinate our children". This is particularly inflammatory language to be used at an Independence Day celebration. Neither speech addressed the ballooning coronavirus rates in the U.S., and neither followed CDC guidelines for large gatherings.
At the July 3 event before Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, Trump used even more divisive language targeting protestors, undoubtedly in an effort to energize his base and gain support in the coming election.
"Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children," Trump said. "Make no mistake. This left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution."
Much of this speech was intended to draw attention away from the pandemic and towards Confederate and non-Confederate statues that have been torn down. Efforts to have these monuments taken down largely revolve around systemic racial injustice, but Trump would have his followers believe their heritage is being wantonly attacked. This is a particularly enflaming speech to be given at a national holiday celebration of patriotism.
At the White House celebration on July 4, Trump conflated Nazis and "the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, [and] the looters". He said that "American heroes" would defeat these "agitators". He went on to call protestors an "angry mob" trying to "trample on our freedoms".
"We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children or trample on our freedoms," he said.
This 'us versus them' language is hardly new from Trump, but it was surprising that he dedicated so much time on the Fourth of July to scapegoating Black Lives Matter while barely touching on COVID-19. Unfortunately, when he did talk about the virus, he made false and dangerously misleading statements.
"Now we have tested, almost 40 million people. By so doing, we show cases -- 99% of which are totally harmless -- results that no other country can show because no other country has testing that we have," Trump said. "Not in terms of the numbers, or in terms of the quality."
It's not clear why the President would say that 99% of cases are "totally harmless". Only 35% of cases are asymptomatic, and nearly 5% of cases are fatal, according to Johns Hopkins. It's also unclear
At both of the events that Trump held this weekend, social distancing measures were completely ignored. Meanwhile, COVID-19 deaths are nearing 130,000 in the U.S. alone. More than 2,800,000 have been infected, and several states are reporting record high cases. Many are blaming the high number of cases on states' decisions to begin reopening before they were ready. Reopening the economy has been Trump's primary concern since it was closed since the beginning.