A desperate try for made-for-TV media content, as are most of Individual-1’s campaign rallies. Weather seems to have made its entrance as well.
President Donald Trump may hope that by throwing a giant military parade and giving a grand speech this Fourth of July, he will impress people enough to turn around his dismal polling numbers.
If so, there is a historical example that the president might want to take as a cautionary tale: President Harry Truman.
As presidential historian Douglas Brinkley explained to CNN’s Dana Bash on “Inside Politics,” Truman — at the nadir of his popularity — tried to turn his image around with a similar grand statement on the Fourth of July. And he ultimately decided not to run for re-election at all.
Thursday, Jul 4, 2019 · 11:42:00 PM +00:00 · annieli
- Trump, on script, is speaking in lofty tones about America's founding. "The faraway king would soon learn a timeless lesson about the people of this majestic land: Americans love our freedom, and no one will ever take it away from us."
- Trump gets in his first at-least-semi-boast: "Our nation is stronger today than it ever was before. It is its strongest now." There is a U-S-A chant.
- Trump says that the United States's "quest for greatness" led to Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone. Canadians will angrily fact-check this.
- Trump promises that "someday soon, we will plant the American flag on Mars." He touts American cultural and technological innovations, such as "the Super Bowl, the skyscraper, the suspension bridge."
- If it's not clear from my excerpts, this is one of the small percentage of Trump speech in which he adopts a Presidential persona and does not audible to tangents.
- Trump applauds the sit-in at the Woolworth lunch counter during the civil rights movement and gives a shout-out to participant Clarence Henderson (who now supports Trump).
- Trump mentions Betsy Ross, then "Douglass - you know, Frederick Douglass - the great Frederick Douglass."
- Trump is telling stories about World War II heroism by the Coast Guard. "Coasties plunge from helicopters and barrel through pouring rain and crashing waves..."
- Trump is going military branch by military branch, telling stories of past heroism in each of them. He's now on the Air Force. "For over 65 years, no enemy air force has managed to kill a single American soldier. Because the skies belong to the United States of America."
- For people confused by this, here's an Air Force Magazine article about how no US ground troop has been killed by an enemy air force since the Korean War. (I am not an expert here.) (Fixed link: airforcemag.com/MagazineArchiv…)
- Trump hailed the Navy and is now on the Marines, who have "struck fear into the hearts of our enemies and put solace into the hearts of our friends."
- Trump touts the elimination of the ISIS caliphate and hails the Army as "the greatest soldiers on Earth."
- Trump calls on Americans to proceed with the same "unity of purpose" the military has shown.
- "We are all made by the same Almighty God," Trump says. He says the "spirit of American independence will never fade, never fail, but will reign for ever, and ever, and ever."
- Trump thanks various people including the Park Service and the people who are doing the fireworks display, tees up a Blue Angels flyover, says the Battle Hymn of the Republic will be playing, and concludes with a "God Bless America."
- Appearing to have some reading trouble, Trump said that the army "took over the airports" during a part of his speech about its actions in the 1700s and early 1800s, when there were not airports or airplanes.