US turns 250 with Trump centre stage

WASHINGTON - The United States celebrated its 250th birthday on July 4 with parades, flyovers and fireworks to come, as President Donald Trump stamped his mark on the landmark anniversary in a deeply divided nation.

Washington’s traditional pyrotechnic display on the National Mall – lined with monuments celebrating the nation’s Founding Fathers – has been super-sized, and is being touted as the biggest ever.

Trump organised a programme of flyovers and an unusual campaign-style political rally – for July Fourth, which marks the anniversary of the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The national holiday comes in the middle of a brutal heatwave, with some 160 million Americans under extreme weather warnings, wreaking havoc with parades, block parties and barbecues in towns and cities across much of the country.

With temperatures in the US capital expected to reach 39 deg C – and the heat index soaring to 43-46 deg C – the Independence Day parade in Washington was cancelled.

Trump, who turned 80 in June, remains undeterred by the oppressive warmth, and has promised to make a “really long speech – just to show that I can do anything.”

Patrick Thompson, a teacher in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, said he would enjoy the day – but not at the national fireworks show.

“We still want to celebrate the country and be patriotic and it’s exciting,” Thompson, a father of two teenagers, told AFP.

“But it’s so weird because it’s got this... strange mar over it because of Trump and just like the 250 thing that turns out not to be what anyone hoped.”

Trump visited the iconic Mount Rushmore monument in South Dakota on July 3 for an evening address under the stony gaze of his legendary predecessors George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

While he lauded US exceptionalism and praised the country’s past leaders, he also said America’s identity was under “renewed attack” from domestic “radicals and extremists”, saving particular ire for a “resurgence of the communist menace.”

It is a theme that the Republican leader has repeatedly hammered home in recent weeks, as the anti-establishment left of the Democratic Party won a string of US primary victories.

On July 4, Vice-President J.D. Vance took up a similar theme in a speech in New York, urging Americans to “reject the view of your nation that sees only its sins, but not its grace and its greatness.”

The deep divisions were on full display near Capitol Hill, where masked men – some of them carrying Confederate flags and others sporting logos of the white supremacist Patriot Front – gathered, shouting, “Reclaim America!”

Pope Leo XIV – the Catholic Church’s first US pope, who has sparred with Trump over his immigration crackdown – used the occasion to say that his vision of the American dream includes an inclusive society.

“Defending human life also includes welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants, whose hopes, sacrifices and contribution have formed part of the history of this country from its very beginning,” the Chicago-born pontiff said.

For Americans, the 250th anniversary festivities offer a moment for reflection as well as celebration.

After two and a half centuries of triumphs and tragedies, slavery and freedom, civil war and world wars, multiple surveys indicate a nation divided about where it is and where it’s going.

A Quinnipiac University Poll showed 61 per cent of Americans thought the US was not living up to the ideals stated in the Declaration of Independence – though most Republicans think it does, and most Democrats think it doesn’t.

Outside Washington, New York is hosting an international parade of tall ships, with flyovers and its own massive fireworks display. Vance spoke there from the deck of the USS Kearsarge.

In Philadelphia, lines formed early despite the heat to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

For Loselie Weber, who was visiting Washington from Texas, the holiday inspires gratitude.

“As an immigrant – a legal immigrant – I came when I was seven years old, and I’ve been thankful, very thankful to be able to have the privilege of living here and the freedom that it has offered me,” Weber told AFP. AFP