The explosion of coronavirus cases isn’t stopping President Donald Trump from hosting a July 4th party Saturday at the White House, despite objections from public…
The explosion of coronavirus cases isn’t stopping President Donald Trump from hosting a July 4th party Saturday at the White House, despite objections from public health officials.
This year’s Independence Day event is somewhat scaled back – there won’t be armored military vehicles on display at the Lincoln Memorial, as happened last year –but the White House still plans to host hundreds of people on the South Lawn for music and fireworks.
Trump also plans to make remarks at the White House a day after a speech in which he took sides in the nation’s culture wars while appearing at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
Attacking what he called «a new far left fascism» seeking to tear down statues of leaders who owned slaves or fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, Trump claimed «our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.»
Trump at Mount Rushmore: Trump accuses protesters who tear down statues of wanting to ‘wipe out our history’ in Fourth of July speech
Political analysts slammed Trump’s use of Mount Rushmore, and Independence Day, as a political props.
«Almost every American president has said that what unites us is greater than what divides us,» tweeted Richard Stengel, a State Department official during the Barack Obama administration. «Only Trump has said that what divides us is the thing that will get me re-elected.»
The fight against the coronavirus pandemic is a theme of what the White House calls a «Salute to America.» Invited guests include doctors, nurses, and other front-line responders to the COVID-19 crisis, as well as members of the military, law enforcement and their families.
«The American people have shown tremendous courage and spirit, particularly our amazing frontline workers, in the fight against this global pandemic just as our forefathers did in the fight to secure our independence,» the White House said in a statement.
Given the recent spikes in COVID-19 cases, the White House said it will provide face masks and hand sanitizer to guests, and encourage social distancing. Some guests will be on the Ellipse just south of the White House.
