'Unifying and uplifting': Karoline Leavitt lavishes praise on Trump's Mount Rushmore speech

It's the job of a press secretary to tout the administration's words and policies, and Karoline Leavitt, as Trump's press secretary, didn't miss the chance to drum up his speech at Mount Rushmore late Friday night on the eve of America's 250th anniversary. "Unifying and uplifting speech tonight from our President! Every American should take the time to watch it," she wrote on X, adding that the speech featured 28 minutes of "iconic words".

Thousands had shown up for the event, which was decided via lottery, to watch Trump arrive grandly with airplanes blazing overhead. The 80-year-old dedicated a significant chunk of his speech to highlighting the threat of communism to the American way of life. "Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty. It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, or even 9/11," he averred.

Trump may not have named names explicitly, but he appears to be referring to a spate of wins by Democratic Socialists in recent primaries across New York and Colorado. He contended that you can either be loyal to Karl Marx or America. "You can be a communist, or you can be a patriot. You cannot be both. Even while the radicals and extremists attack our incredible history at every turn, they are silent on the miserable history of communism itself because it never worked."

The president's speech took a political detour after he issued a clarion call for the midterms. "We can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms if we are foolish, stupid, and unwise. But if we terminate the filibuster as we should do and immediately vote for the Save America Act, then we will not lose an election for 100 years," he said, adding that the Communist Party is made up of "illegal immigrants, criminals, and everybody that doesn't want to work".

The remarks also boasted American exceptionalism as the source of strength and bulwark of freedom. "...we can never forget that American liberty has not endured for 250 years merely because of words on paper. Liberty has prevailed here because of the culture and character of the people who declared it, defended it, and preserved it. America has a destiny like no other because we are a people like no other," he declared from his podium.

Mount Rushmore holds a special place for Trump, who has previously suggested that it would not be a bad idea to add his face to the mountain. In fact, Trump posted a video depicting a gilded Mount Rushmore with his face chiseled next to the faces of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt. He made no mention of it in his speech, but there have been reports that his aides had inquired about adding faces to the monument during his first term.