Trump news: Native Americans protest ahead of president's Mount Rushmore event as coronavirus cases continue to spike
Nation surpasses 50,000 cases for third consecutive day as violent Fourth of July speech defends monuments
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump drew on his dark, campaign-style vision of a divided America at his Fourth of July fireworks show at Mount Rushmore, held in front of hundreds of people packed together and not wearing masks as the nation's coronavirus crisis reaches nearly 3 million cases and more than 128,00 deaths.
The US reported more than 50,000 cases on Friday for a third straight-day, with spikes in nearly every state as the US entered the three-day holiday weekend.
In his remarks, he promised to defend monuments and condemned what he called "far-left fascism" among protesters calling for the removal of statues honouring slaveholders and Confederates.
Roughly 100 protesters were met by National Guard troops who fired pepper spray at several people and arrested a handful of others.
The president promised to build a National Garden of American Heroes – "a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans who ever lived" – including a complicated and likely controversial selection of American figures, from Amelia Earhart and Harriet Tubman to Antonin Scalia and Billy Graham.
The president also argued that Black Lives Matter protesters angered by the police killings of George Floyd and other black Americans would have wiped out the city of Minneapolis had he not sent in the National Guard to stop the demonstrations, while he picked fights with CNN anchor Chris Cuomo and Dr Anthony Fauci as he seeks to distract from the resurgent coronavirus.
Dr Fauci warned on Thursday that the US is “not going in the right direction” after the country reported 55,000 new cases of Covid-19 in a day, beating the world record for a daily rise set by Brazil on 19 June. Arizona, California, Florida and Texas alone accounted for 25,000 of that total as assistant health secretary Brett Giroir cautioned: “We are not flattening the curve right now. The curve is still going up.”
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On the move
The presidential motorcade has left Trump National Golf Club and is heading back to the White House.
For those keeping score
We may never know what the president's actual golf score is when he plays a round, but according to one tally, he has played golf on 274 days of the 1,261 he has been in office, and visited a Trump property on 369 of those days.
To compare, Barack Obama played golf 333 times in eight years.
Trump's 'worst nightmare'
Read the latest edition of Polarized, a weekly series featuring Americans from all 50 states sharing their views on the 2020 election.
This week, Chris Riotta talks to a 68-year-old grandfather in North Carolina — registered as an independent, he voted for Donald Trump in 2016. He explains why in 2020, he'll be voting for Joe Biden.
There hasn't been a fireworks display at Mount Rushmore in 10 years. Here's why.
Writing in The Washington Post on Wednesday, Cheryl Schreier, the former superintendent of Mount Rushmore from 2010 to 2019, explained why there hasn't been a fireworks display at the national memorial for a decade.
She cites safety concerns, including wildfires started by fireworks, medical emergencies, and extreme weather — all compounded by traffic congestion from visitors. In addition, groundwater is also contaminated by chemicals used in fireworks which could lead to longer term problems.
Wildfires are of particular concern this year due to an extremely dry summer. Similar conditions led to the cancellation of displays in 2002 and 2010.
Adding the potential for a coronavirus super spreader event involving visitors from across the country, she urged the president and governor to reconsider the event.
Her warnings have gone unheeded.
Let's flashback to this report from January:
"What can burn? It's stone."
The worst polling for an incumbent since 1992
The president may be in a celebratory mood with fireworks or the country's 243rd birthday tonight and tomorrow (Mount Rushmore and the National Mall), but his poll numbers make for dismal reading four months out from Election Day.
Our Washington Bureau Chief, John T Bennett, reports below.
The Plot Against America reboot?
Despite the terrible poll numbers mentioned in the previous post, here's some food for thought from former Colorado Senator Tim Wirth.
He lays out a scenario in which Donald Trump remains in office despite losing the election. Apparently inspired in-part by HBO's adaptation of the Phillip Roth novel The Plot Against America, that aired earlier this year.
Graig Graziosi reports. Don't have nightmares.
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