With Donald Trump in the White House, this 4th of July will be “bigger and better than ever before.”
The 45th president announced plans over the weekend for “one of the biggest gatherings in the history of Washington, D.C.” at the Lincoln Memorial this year called “A Salute to America” that will feature an address from “your favorite president, me!”
Trump makes big July 4 announcement
Trump made the announcement in characteristic Trump-ian fashion, totally by surprise and with a flash of humor. He tweeted on Sunday:
HOLD THE DATE! We will be having one of the biggest gatherings in the history of Washington, D.C., on July 4th. It will be called “A Salute To America” and will be held at the Lincoln Memorial. Major fireworks display, entertainment and an address by your favorite President, me!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2019
His tweet was met with an immediate storm of criticism from liberals who said that Trump is really planning a celebration of his ego, that Trump’s America is a distortion of American values, or that he doesn’t realize that Independence Day celebrations already happen in Washington.
If this goes well, I think we should follow it with a big party in Times Square the night before New Year’s Day. https://t.co/PiiNrcpIml
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) February 24, 2019
Never Trump Republican Bill Kristol, whose ill-fated Weekly Standard tanked after President Trump took over the Republican Party, suggested a “counter-gathering” where Americans can be reminded of the “real” meaning of America, which as the left would have it has something to do with open borders.
“There should be a patriotic counter-gathering where excerpts from some of these wonderful speeches and writings on the real meaning of Independence Day are read, to remind us that we are better than Trump, and that America is better than Trump’s America,” Kristol tweeted.
Various anti-Trump Twitterati and Democratic lawmakers also chimed in with the supposed “gotcha” that Trump thought he invented the 4th of July and that Washington already has July 4th celebrations like fireworks and an annual concert at the National Mall.
For her part, presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) predictably quipped that Trump “needs to realize it’s America’s birthday, not his birthday.”
Trump seeks new “tradition”
Despite the blowback, Trump had said previously this month to his Cabinet that he wants to inaugurate a new tradition in Washington to mark America’s birthday that would stand out from the usual pageantry of parades and fireworks in America’s capital. It isn’t clear exactly what Trump has in mind, but it’s big.
“It could be a very exciting day,” Trump said. “It’ll be a — really a gathering, as opposed to a parade, I guess you’d have to say. Perhaps at the Lincoln Memorial. We’re looking at sites. But we’re thinking about doing something which would become perhaps, become a tradition, Salute to America, on July 4th or July 4th weekend, somewhere around that area.”
Trump was criticized before for wanting to stage a military parade in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I this past Veteran’s Day. Trump said he was inspired by a parade he saw in France, but critics levied familiar criticisms that the parade was a celebration of Trump’s ego and an expression of his alleged dictatorial tendencies. Trump scrapped the plans in August for being too costly.
Still, if Trump’s critics can’t see that he wants July 4th to be the biggest it’s ever been, they just don’t understand Trump — but that’s on them.
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