President Trump marked the nation’s 250th birthday late Saturday with a colossal fireworks display and a late-night speech warning against communism and pledging the United States would continue on the path to greatness started by the nation’s founders in 1776.
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Mr. Trump delivered the speech hours later than planned due to summer storms that forced the evacuation of the celebration on the National Mall.
The 37-minute address paid tribute to the founders, veterans and his own foreign policy achievements that he said eliminated ruthless regimes that stifled freedom.
“You look at Venezuela, you look at Iran. We wiped it out. Wiped out their military,” Mr. Trump said, comparing U.S. strikes in the Middle East to sinking of the Spanish fleet in 1898.
Mr. Trump, framed by the nation’s most historic flags, said the United States stood against communism during the Cold War and would never allow it to proliferate in the United States.
“America will never be a communist country,” Mr. Trump said. “Won’t happen. Communism is a loser and it always will be. Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world, only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America. We’re not going to let it happen.”
Mr. Trump sounded the warning amid a new class of socialist candidates running for Congress as Democrats and following a July 4 speech by socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani that criticized America.
“Patriotism has never been about pretending our nation is without flaws. Patriotism is every act of righteous dissent, it is every march led under the heavy sun, it is every protest held a decade before its time,” Mr. Mamdani said.
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Mr. Trump’s speech was followed by a massive fireworks display. About 850,000 fireworks shells were set off from 10 different sites as part of the “Salute to America — Freedom 250 Celebration.” The nearly blinding display, 40 minutes long, set a world record.
Mr. Trump did not begin speaking until 11:15 p.m. Crowds returned to the Mall following the evacuation in time to hear his speech and watch the fireworks display that launched before midnight.
Mr. Trump’s speech was largely a tribute to the nation’s patriotic past but wove in his own agenda, urging Congress to pass his voter ID legislation, the stalled Save America Act.
He paid tribute to veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Civil War. The stage where Mr. Trump delivered the address was adorned with historic flags — one that few following the Revolutionary War victory in Saratoga, another at the British surrender at Yorktown, and one that draped the coffin of President Abraham Lincoln.
“Together we are also reasserting the truth that American strength and power is not something to be ashamed of. It is something we are very, very proud of,” Mr. Trump said. “This country has been the greatest force for peace and justice on earth in the last century. We defeated tyrants, demolished evil and saved freedom again and again and again.”
Mr. Trump’s speech, while delayed, was never in doubt. The president promised to deliver it at 4 a.m. if needed, even if only a single person showed up to hear it.
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Mr. Trump praised the crowds who returned to hear his speech.
“Lightning will never stop you,” Mr. Trump said to the crowd.
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