His ominous remarks were a concession to his political standing: trailing in the polls, lacking a booming economy or a positive message to campaign on, and leaning on culture wars to buoy his loyalists.
WASHINGTON —With his support falling even among Republicans as the coronavirus makes a frightening resurgence across the country, President Trump used a weekend dedicated to patriotism to signal that he will spend the final four months of his re-election effort digging deeper into a culture divide, creating an enemy for his supporters in what he branded the “new far-left fascism.”
Standing in front of Mount Rushmore on Friday night, participating in an official presidential event funded by taxpayers, Mr. Trump promoted a version of the “American carnage” vision for the country that he laid out during his inaugural address — updated to include an ominous depiction of the recent protests over racial justice. Mr. Trump said the goal of protesters who want to topple monuments is “to end America.”
He was expected to follow up with a second Independence Day address on Saturday from the South Lawn of the White House, from where he could view a military flyover and a large fireworks display on the National Mall. Mr. Trump’s administration pushed for the celebration, despite the warnings of local officials that it was still unsafe to bring people together in large crowds.
His morbid remarks at Rushmore were also a concession to his political standing as he nears the end of his first term in office: trailing former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee, in national and battleground polls; lacking a booming economy or a positive message to campaign on as he tries to assign blame elsewhere for the spread of the coronavirus; and leaning on culture wars instead to buoy his base of white supporters.
Sticking closely to the remarks on his teleprompter, with none of the joking and sarcastic asides that pepper his rally remarks, Mr. Trump delivered his speech in a grim monotone that he often employs when reading from a script.
Campaign officials have repeatedly said they expect backlash against the progressive “cancel culture” movement to help the president’s standing with suburban female voters frightened by images of chaos in the city streets. That backlash has yet to reveal itself in polls. A recent Pew survey found that just 19 percent of Republicans said they were satisfied with “the way things are going,” down from 55 percent of Republican respondents in a previous version of the same poll.
