Donald Trump delivered his controversial ”Salute to America” address in Washington, DC, on Thursday amid hammering summer storms, his speech managing to avoid partisan politics but marred by an extraordinary gaffe in which he claimed the 1775 revolutionary army “took over the airports”.
The president also promised to “plant a US flag on Mars” and encouraged young Americans to sign up for military service, despite receiving no fewer than five deferments himself preventing him from serving in the Vietnam War.
While the event featured the Air Force flypast and spectacular fireworks display Mr Trump had promised, it was also defined by an unseemly brawl breaking out between protesters and members of the alt-right militant group Proud Boys after the former set fire to the stars-and-stripes in front of the White House.
The president meanwhile saidon Friday he may issue an executive order over his 2020 Census demands. The US Constitution specifically assigns the job of overseeing the census to Congress, limiting the authority of the president over it, which could complicate an effort to add the question via presidential missive.
“We’re working on a lot of things including an executive order,” Mr Trump told reporters outside the White House as he left for his resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.
In a court filing in response to a Maryland-based federal judge’s deadline, the Department of Justice indicated it has not yet come up with a new legal rationale for adding the question after being blocked in the Supreme Court on 27 June.
US District Judge George Hazel said on Wednesday that if the administration did not reach a decision he would press ahead with considering allegations based on newly discovered evidence that the decision to add the question was motivated by racial bias.
The Justice Department said in its court filing it objects to the case moving forward.
Critics have called the citizenship question a Republican ploy to scare immigrants into not participating and engineer a population undercount in Democratic-leaning areas with high immigrant populations. They say that officials lied about their motivations for adding the question and that the move would help Trump’s fellow Republicans gain seats in the US House of Representatives and state legislatures when new electoral district boundaries are drawn.
Mr Trump on Friday said the “number one” reason for adding the question was for the drawing of electoral districts, which is not the legal reason the administration gave for adding it.
He and his supporters say it makes sense to know how many non-citizens are living in the country. His hard-line policies on immigration have punctuated his presidency and 2020 re-election campaign.
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Donald Trump delivered his controversial ”Salute to America” address in Washington, DC, on Thursday amid hammering summer storms, his speech before the Lincoln Memorial managing to avoid partisan politics and met by a cheering but soggy crowd of spectators (the Secret Service had confiscated their umbrellas). Supporters welcomed his tribute to the US military but protesters assailed the president for putting himself centre stage on a holiday devoted to unity.
“It’s reminiscent of a Kim Jong-un rally,” commented political science student Daniela Guray, 19, brandishing a homemade "Dump Trump" sign.
As the rain came down, Trump called on Americans to "stay true to our cause" during a programme that adhered to patriotic themes and hailed an eclectic mix of history's heroes, from the armed forces, space, civil rights and other endeavors of American life. He largely stuck to his script, avoiding diversions into his agenda or re-election campaign.
"We will always be the people who defeated a tyrant, crossed a continent, harnessed science, took to the skies and soared into the heavens because we will never forget that we are Americans and the future belongs to us," he told his audience, calling the story of America as "the greatest political journey in human history".
The warplanes and presidential aircraft the president had summoned - B-2 stealth bombers, F-35 and F-18 fighter jets, V-22 Ospreys and Army and Coast Guard helicopters - conducted their flyovers as planned, capped by the Navy Blue Angels aerobatics team. Their efforts were followed by a huge fireworks display over DC.
By adding his own, one-hour "Salute to America" production to capital festivities that typically draw hundreds of thousands anyway, Trump became the first president in nearly seven decades to address a crowd at the National Mall on the Fourth of July.
Trump set aside a historic piece of real estate - a stretch of the Mall from the Lincoln Monument to the midpoint of the reflecting pool - for a mix of invited military members, Republican and Trump campaign donors and other bigwigs. It's where Martin Luther King Jr gave his "I have a dream" speech, Barack Obama and Trump held inaugural concerts and protesters swarmed into the water when supporters of Richard Nixon put on a 4 July 1970, celebration, with the president sending taped remarks from California.
Aides to the crowd-obsessed Trump had fretted about the prospect of empty seats at his event - and a repeat of his sparsely attended inauguration in January 2017 - scrambling to distribute tickets and mobilise the Trump and GOP social media accounts to encourage participation for an event hastily arranged and surrounded with confusion.
Back at the White House, Trump tweeted an aerial photo showing an audience that filled both sides of the memorial's pool and stretched to the Washington Monument. "A great crowd of tremendous Patriots this evening, all the way back to the Washington Monument!" he said.
Many who filed into the sprawling VIP section said they got their free tickets from members of Congress or from friends or neighbours who couldn't use theirs. Outside that zone, a diverse mix of visitors, locals, veterans, tour groups, immigrant families and more milled about, some drawn by Trump, some by curiosity, some by the holiday's regular activities along the Mall.
The run-up to the event had been defined by controversy over the president's decision to reallocate $2.5m (£1.9m) from the National Parks Service to pay for the day's festivities and over his costly decision to have heavy M1 Abrams tanks brought to the capital by rail from Fort Stewart in Georgia to emphasise American military might, with the city council fearing the 62-tonne armoured vehicles could damage historic DC infrastructure.
Dave Maclean was there. Here's his report.
Trump's speech was marred, however, by several extraordinary historical gaffes, the most jaw-dropping of which was his claim that the revolutionary army of 1775 "took over the airports" in a passage that also referenced Battle of Fort McHenry, which occurred in September 1814, suggesting his speechwriters had confused the Revolutionary War with the War of 1812.
Here he is saying it:
...And here are the inevitable memes, with which the "strong and stable genius" was rightly ridiculed.
Here's Greg Evans for Indy100 with more.
The president also promised "Very soon, we will plant the American flag on Mars", which is actually a distant goal not likely to be achieved until late in the 2020s, if even then.
He also encouraged young Americans to sign up for military service, despite receiving no fewer than five deferments himself preventing him from serving in the Vietnam War due to bone spurs.
"I wasn't going to Vietnam - you think I'm stupid?" his ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, quotes him as saying in private.
Speaking of the American flag, an unseemly brawl broke out between communist protesters and members of the alt-right militant chauvinist group Proud Boys after the former set fire to the stars-and-stripes in front of the White House as part of an anti-Trump demonstration.
Two people were arrested for their role in the fracas, the Secret Service saying one person was arrested for felony assault on a police officer and malicious burning, while the other was arrested for hindering a police investigation and resisting arrest.
Military contractor Chris Hekimian, 58, said he had anticipated the outbreak of violence in DC: "I’m more scared of Antifa thugs with acid than I am of the president making a speech before the fireworks,” motioning to his backpack and saying: “I brought baking soda just in case I’m attacked."
Here's Conrad Duncan's report. What a picture this is.
A video of a police officer fist-bumping one of the Proud Boys has gone viral as members of the far-right group were seen being escorted through the streets of Washington chanting “blue lives matter” in support of the authorities.
Harry Cockburn has this report.
Yesterday's protests in Washington were otherwise largely peaceful and saw demonstrators from the the anti-war organisation Codepink bring out the 20-foot tall inflatable “Trump baby blimp” and a 16-foot robot depicting Trump sitting on a golden toilet, both of which were last seen at anti-Trump protests in London a month ago.
The activists made their voices heard in the sweltering heat by the Washington Monument, along the traditional parade route and elsewhere, while the VIP section at the reflecting pool served as a buffer for the president.
"We think that he is making this about himself and it's really a campaign rally," said Medea Benjamin, the Codepink's co-director. "We think that he's a big baby... He's erratic, he's prone to tantrums, he doesn't understand the consequences of his actions. And so this is a great symbol of how we feel about our president."
The balloon remained tied down at the Mall because park officials restricted the group's permission to move it or fill it with helium, Benjamin said. Protesters also handed out small Trump-baby balloons on sticks.
Molly King of La Porte, Indiana, a 13-year-old Trump supporter in sunglasses and a "Make America Great Again" hat, happily came away with one. "They're making a big stink about it but it's actually pretty cute," she said. "I mean, why not love your president as you'd love a baby?"
A small crowd gathered to take pictures with the big balloon, which drew Trump supporters and detractors.
"Even though everybody has different opinions," said Kevin Malton, a Trump supporter from Middlesboro, Kentucky, "everybody's getting along."
The aforementioned Daniela Guray said she was subjected to a racial epithet while walking along the Constitution Avenue parade route and told to go home.
She said she did not come to the Mall to protest but ended up doing so. "I started seeing all the tanks with all the protests and that's when I said, 'Wait, this is not an actual Fourth of July,"' she said. "Trump is making it his day rather than the Fourth of July."
“Donald Trump is the very definition of a tyrant. Inserting himself into Independence Day with all the trappings of the military is very much in character for him,” added Rosa Cox, 41, a graphic designer.
Here's more from our man on the ground Dave Maclean, who characterised the day as "a straight-to-DVD Red Square parade" rather than the "Hollywood remake of a European classic" the president had intended .
Away from Washington, Democratic 2020 contender and California senator Kamala Harris was campaigning in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday and delivered the following stinging statement about Trump.
"Donald Trump has predatory nature and predatory instincts," she continued. "The thing about predators is that they prey on the vulnerable. They prey on those who they do not believe are strong. The thing about predators you must importantly know [is] predators are cowards."
Harris has enjoyed a bounce in the polls since triumphing in the second of her party's televised debates from Miami, Florida, when she attacked front-runner Joe Biden in strong terms as an apologist for segregationists.
Fox Business host Lou Dobbs - a close friend and unofficial economic adviser to Donald Trump - posted this astonishing attack on "Snowflake Generals" yesterday over their disquiet about taking part in the "Salute to America", saying it was "no wonder [they] haven't won a war since 1991".
More than 20 undocumented workers previously employed by President Trump’s company have requested a meeting with their former boss to discuss how to update the country’s immigration system and to ask for protection from deportation.
The Wednesday letter to the White House – from former groundskeepers, maids and kitchen staffers at the Trump Organisation’s golf courses – also asks the president to recall their years of service and “do the right thing” for them and others who are in the country unlawfully.
Despite Trump's efforts in Washington yesterday, US national pride has hit a record low according to a new poll.
Here's Victoria Gagliardo-Silver's report.
RIP Mad Magazine, the celebrated American satirical comic that announced it is ceasing publication after 67 years this week.
President Trump recently likened 2020 candidate Pete Buttigieg to its goofy cover star Alfred E Neuman - a reference Buttigieg said he had to look up - but the magazine itself clearly felt Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner had more of a resemblance.
The hashtag #RainOnTrumpsParade was trending last night.
Here's Lowenna Waters for Indy100 with the best gags at the president's expense.
Here's a couple of weird pictures from the Trumpverse you might enjoy.
This art installation, entitled "Everything is Fine", depicts the president's submerged head in the Moselle river in Metz, France.
(Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP)
A Tommy Robinson supporter courageously hides his face from the cameras outside the Old Bailey in London with a rubber mask of El Presidente.
(Tolga Akmen/AFP)
And here's another beauty from the G20 in Osaka, Japan.
(Jae C Hong/AP)
Presented without comment.
Joe Biden has given an interview to CNN's Chris Cuomo and says he would back a female president if he can't win the Democratic nomination himself.
This is a noble sentiment but the expression of it is very "Diamond Joe".
The ridicule keeps on coming over Trump's airports of 1775 gaffe.
There were stealth bombers on show as part of Trump's big celebration yesterday.
Let's hope that disabuses him of the notion that those planes are quite literally invisible, a comment he has made at least twice, most recently at the G20.
Here's Greg Evans with more.
The latest jobs numbers are showing strong economic signs - and a chance Donald Trump's call for another interest rate cut may not be heeded -
