{"id":218,"date":"2026-07-05T15:06:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T10:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=218"},"modified":"2026-07-05T15:06:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T10:06:28","slug":"trumps-god-guns-and-anticommunist-fourth-of-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=218","title":{"rendered":"Trump&#039;s God, guns and anticommunist Fourth of July"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/hxBHH8c81xeg7jLoMg7sPmNT5P8=\/0x135:4000x2385\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/05\/1783224192771.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">Trump<\/a> championed American military might, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/05\/01\/christian-leaders-denounce-white-house-task-force\" target=\"_blank\">Christian<\/a> U.S. and his top legislative goal in a delayed Fourth of July speech from the National Mall, wrapping just minutes before the calendar switched to Sunday morning.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The big picture: <\/strong>The speech caps a holiday interrupted by weather-related holdups and months of semiquincentennial commemorations \u2014 many of which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/01\/america-250-freedom-250-celebrations\" target=\"_blank\">centered on the president<\/a> and his vision of the nation at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/03\/trumps-july-4-sparks-counter-250-events\" target=\"_blank\">250 years<\/a> old.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Driving the news: <\/strong>Throughout the speech, Trump nodded to a modern-day battle against communism, a frequent element of his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/27\/trump-midterm-democratic-socialists\" target=\"_blank\">midterm messaging<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;We don&#8217;t want communists in our country,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Never worked, and it never will work.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Trump later added, &#8220;Communism is a loser, and it always will be.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom out: <\/strong>The president&#8217;s language was also markedly religious \u2014 in line with the tone from the White House and its allies that has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/03\/america-250-christianity-founders\" target=\"_blank\">steered America&#8217;s 250th birthday<\/a> toward prayer and divine guidance, <em>Axios&#8217; Russell Contreras reports.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;All over the world, they try and be like us, nobody can be like us, and with God&#8217;s help, we will always be this, or even better,&#8221; he said.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;As our Declaration of Independence tells us, we are all made in the image of one almighty God, and a communist will never say that, that&#8217;s for sure,&#8221; he added.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Several military veterans<\/strong> and the<strong> <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/04\/01\/moon-artemis-ii-launch-florida\" target=\"_self\">Artemis II crew<\/a> joined the stage to cheers as the president touted America&#8217;s history of military achievements, sacrifice and innovation.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>But he also diverted to push for passage of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/02\/10\/save-america-act-trump-voter-id\" target=\"_self\">SAVE America Act<\/a> voter ID bill, a fixation of the president&#8217;s that has become a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/30\/house-republicansstuck-save-america-act\" target=\"_blank\">source of friction<\/a> for his congressional allies.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;There will be no mail-in ballots, except for illness, disability, military deployment, or travel, and you won&#8217;t have cheating on the elections anymore,&#8221; said the president, who often circulates unfounded claims of mass election fraud.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Catch up quick: <\/strong>Trump took the stage after storms forced throngs of event-goers to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/VaughnHillyard\/status\/2073584348603773011\" target=\"_blank\">evacuate<\/a>, seek temporary shelter, and then be re-screened through security checkpoints when gates reopened.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The timing of the celebration&#8217;s finale fireworks was already in flux, with Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/shorts\/l4_AN2JosCw\" target=\"_blank\">pledging<\/a> he&#8217;d give a &#8220;really long speech&#8221; despite the heat wave bringing triple-digit temperatures to D.C.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Go deeper: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/15\/trump-rally-july-4-celebration-dc\" target=\"_blank\">Trump declares D.C.&#8217;s July 4 celebration a &#8220;TRUMP RALLY&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Trump championed American military might, a Christian U.S. and his top legislative goal in a delayed Fourth of July speech from the National Mall, wrapping just minutes before the calendar switched to Sunday morning. The big picture: The speech caps a holiday interrupted by weather-related holdups and months of semiquincentennial commemorations \u2014 many of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/hxBHH8c81xeg7jLoMg7sPmNT5P8=\/0x135:4000x2385\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/05\/1783224192771.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}