U.S. President Donald Trump blasted his political opponents as “communists,” complained about his legal troubles and bragged about the size of the crowd in a rain-delayed speech that capped a troubled series of celebrations for his country’s 250th birthday.
Mr. Trump took the stage on the National Mall in Washington around 11:15 p.m. on Saturday at the end of a sweltering, humid Independence Day marked by 40C temperatures and evening thunderstorms.
The address had originally been set for 9:45 p.m. in a bid to avoid the worst of the heat but instead ran into rain and lightning that caused an evacuation of the site. The President said he had insisted with going on with the show.
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“If you think that was easy, it wasn’t,” he said. “If we have to speak in front of one person at four o’clock in the morning, I’m going to be there. There’s no way we can be deterred.”
Mr. Trump has been determined to own the milestone anniversary of the U.S.’s Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, taking control of the festivities and making his speech the main event.
His concept was some combination of world’s fair and MAGA rally that would show off both American power and his efforts to leave a personal stamp on the country’s capital.
But the events were plagued with difficulties. Bands cancelled their performances, attendance throughout the week has been sparse, algae has tinted the Reflecting Pool green, a mock-up of Mr. Trump’s planned triumphal arch began to fall apart and a piece of the main stage came crashing down during rehearsal.
On Saturday, thousands of fans waited for hours to be let through security gates, only to be told before the program started to evacuate as winds picked up, rain fell and lightning shimmered in the distance. Some streamed away, packing downtown bars. Others refused to leave the Mall. Most crowded onto downtown streets, danced to Nelly’s Hot in Herre and waited to be let back in.
Michael Collins, 59, said he drove 18 hours from Raceland, La. with his family to be in the capital on the holiday and was determined to wait it out. A worker on offshore oil and gas platforms, he said such inclement weather was no big deal.
“Things happen, there are rainstorm and heatwaves everywhere in the country,” he said as he stood two blocks from the Mall. “People are trying to have a good time. We’re glad to be here.”
When Mr. Trump did manage to give his speech, he flipped back and forth between scripted remarks lauding the U.S. as “the crowning achievement of human history” and improvised asides covering a range of familiar topics.
Referring to a recent string of victories by progressive candidates in Democratic primaries, Mr. Trump warned: “We don’t want communists in our country.” While describing the country’s commitment to equal justice, he added “although I wasn’t treated that well, but I won’t get into that,” in reference to his criminal conviction two years ago and other trials.
The President also said the rally had initially attracted 375,000 people but dropped to 150,000 because of the rain.
The President’s approval rating has dropped following his war on Iran and rising gas prices and his Republicans face a tough battle to maintain control of Congress in November.
But the MAGA faithful who arrived from around the country said they still had confidence in their man.
Jerry McDonald, a 68-year-old retired truck driver from Dayton, Tex., said the main problem was that Mr. Trump wasn’t going hard enough on Iran. He urged the President to send weapons to the Iranian people to foment an uprising.
“Finish it off, take care of it,” he said. “His mandate is to secure America, that’s what everybody voted for, whatever it takes.”
Forrest Lee, 31, in town from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., said he understood the rationale for attacking Iran because of the danger posed by its possession of uranium. But he said the President had not always communicated well, allowing a narrative to take hold that he was merely doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr. Lee, who is related to two signers of the Declaration of Independence, spent part of the afternoon watching the fighter jets, stealth bomber and helicopters that buzzed the city, from a patch of shade two blocks from the Lincoln Memorial. He had tried to visit the nearby Vietnam Veterans Memorial but found his path blocked by the ubiquitous fencing that turned the city into a fortress.
“It’s very secure, lots of police, lots of Secret Service. You can barely see the White House. They’re keeping everybody safe, keeping everybody split up. It’s almost intended to keep us from being in one location for security purposes,” said Mr. Lee, who owns a classic car rental business not far from Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
The celebrations were originally set to be organized by a bipartisan committee created by Congress.
But the Trump administration set up Freedom 250, which went to work fulfilling Mr. Trump’s campaign promise of a year of festivities, including a Great American State Fair. The event, which features cultural and historical displays from U.S. states and territories, plus a Ferris wheel and rodeo, has been running on the National Mall for the past week and a half.
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Several scheduled musical performers, however, pulled out of the event days after the lineup was announced in May, with singer Martina McBride saying she decided to cancel when she realized it would not be a “non-partisan” event. Rocker Bret Michaels said the festivities had “evolved into something much more divisive” than their original intent.
At least 10 states, including Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Oregon, chose not to participate in the fair. Some, such as Illinois and Massachusetts, cited cost as the reason. The Oregon governor’s office also said it did not want to take part in a “partisan affair.”
Attendance at the fair appeared to be low. Viral photos and videos showed only a trickle of people amid acres of green grass on the Mall and, in one case, a musical performance taking place in front of just 10 audience members.
A plywood and plastic mock-up of a triumphal arch that Mr. Trump plans to have built across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial, meanwhile, began to come apart. Its vinyl wrap has wrinkled and warped, while its upper portions have developed cracks, which appear to have been plugged with yellow spray foam.
And video from Thursday showed a piece of the stage falling from the rigging with a crash behind a group of dancers rehearsing.
Jayna Wells, a 53-year-old teacher, said the fair was “a nice idea but poor execution.” There is only one access point for much of downtown, leaving crowds wandering the fence line looking for a way in. And she disagreed with the political bent: one religious pavilion exclusively features several conservative evangelical groups.
“It’s not overly well-attended or well-organized. The access is making it harder for people to participate,” she said. “And it’s too political.”
To push back on the celebrations’ pro-Trump bent, Ms. Wells dressed as the Statue of Liberty and carried a white board in her hand that read “liberty for all, including women, transgender people and immigrants.”
Overlooking Ms. Wells as she spoke was a large banner of Mr. Trump’s face, recently hung from the front of the Department of the Interior. It joins similar banners showing the President that hang from the departments of Justice and Labour.
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At least part of the purpose of the event was to showcase Mr. Trump’s efforts to beautify Washington, including cleaning up parks and its central train station.
One of the central projects, the Reflecting Pool, however, developed a large green algae bloom just days after Mr. Trump had it fitted with a new filtration system and a liner in “American flag blue.” When the lining started coming unstuck, the President claimed without evidence that it had been deliberately cut by someone.
Police have arrested several people they accuse of touching the liner. One, a 67-year-old former Olympic canoeist named David Hearn, was charged this week with destruction of property. He has maintained that he merely reached into the pool to touch a piece of the lining floating in the water.
Greg and Denise Gorlich, who travelled from St. Charles, Ill., for the festivities with their son, said they were impressed by the state fair. The Florida pavilion was a particular highlight, with a simulated orange grove, a putting green and free manatee stuffies.
“The only disappointment is that not all the states were represented,” Ms. Gorlich, a 65-year-old retired air traffic controller, said as she sat on the grass in front of the recently-renamed Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace.
Mr. Gorlich, 64, said the visit to Washington for the celebrations had been “a wonderful couple of days.”
“This would not have happened without President Trump,” he said. “No one else could have pulled this off.”