MOUNT RUSHMORE, S.D. — The floodlit faces of four presidents stared down from the granite mountain as President Donald Trump told a crowd Friday that communism is “the enemy of the Constitution.” He spoke on the eve of Independence Day, opening the weekend of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations. The president’s speech at this national monument ran long on ideology and short on policy. He called communism a “menace” both inside the country and abroad.
He tied that threat directly to immigration. Left-wing political figures and certain undocumented arrivals, he suggested, should be removed from the United States.
“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,” Trump said. He pledged that American citizens would “vanquish communism quickly.” The setting carried its own weight. The monument’s carved faces — Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln — have stood here since 1941.
Trump used their backdrop to talk about military strength. He said the United States created “the strongest and most powerful military” and won two world wars.
The Cold War, he claimed, left America’s enemies “in the depths of history.” Then he turned to current conflicts. Trump said the U.S. “beat Venezuela in one day” and “knocked the hell out of Iran.” Those lines drew applause. The president briefly addressed the ongoing U.S.-Israel war with Iran.
He described Tehran as “dying to settle.” He said Washington had granted “a week off for a funeral because we’re nice.” The funeral was for late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killed on the first day of the war. Days of state ceremonies followed. Trump did not offer details on how the war might end.
He did not mention the persistent inflation and elevated energy prices that voters are grappling with — the report notes those are driven by the conflict. The speech came in November, ahead of the midterm elections.
That timing matters. The president used the anniversary weekend to frame a national identity. He defined it in opposition to communism and in defense of the Constitution.
Immigration was the wedge. Left-wing figures and certain undocumented people, he said, should be removed.
By nightfall, the monument’s floodlit faces loomed over the crowd. The four presidents looked out over a country at war, with an election weeks away and a president telling his supporters that the enemy is not just overseas.
