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President Donald Trump delivered a 37-minute speech for America’s 250th birthday after a weather delay in the dark of night that was lit up by a Guinness world-record-setting fireworks display stretching from July 4 into July 5 at Washington, D.C.’s National Mall.
While thousands outlasted the rain and dodged nature’s thunderstorm light show, many Americans might have missed the president’s historic remarks.
Here is a recap of some of the highlights.
AMERICA’S NEXT 250 YEARS DEPEND ON PASSING FAITH AND FREEDOM TO OUR CHILDREN
‘No dream in history is bigger’ than the American experiment
“In this country, we could achieve the wildest and most impossible dreams, and no dream in history is bigger or more incredible than the one that started on July 4th, 1776,” Trump said. “The war for independence was launched by minutemen, farmers, blacksmiths, tradesmen who took up their muskets against the mightiest army on earth, the most powerful army and unbeatable army – until they met us.”
“No one made them do it. They fought because they knew that a free people must have a free country. Over 250 years, the world has seen the great empires, vast kingdoms, mighty nations and terrible tyrants: They came and they went, but after 2 1/2 centuries, this American republic still stands tall and strong,” the president added.
TRUMP HAILS AMERICA AS ‘MOST EXCEPTIONAL NATION EVER TO EXIST’ IN MOUNT RUSHMORE SPEECH
‘America is a nation of winners’
“Americans won the West and built the modern world, because America is a nation of winners, and today our country is winning again, and we’re winning like never before,” Trump said just before the midway point of the speech. “America is back and we want to keep America great.”
“Together, we are also reasserting the truth that American strength and power is not something to be ashamed of. It is something that we are very, very proud of,” Trump continued. “This country has been the greatest force for peace and justice on earth in the last century. We defeated tyrants, demolished evil, and saved freedom again and again and again.”
‘Nothing Americans cannot do’
“There is no challenge Americans can not overcome,” Trump said before his concluding remarks. “There is no place we cannot go. There is no goal we cannot reach. And there is nothing that Americans cannot do.”
Thanking those staying into the late hours
“If you think that was easy, it wasn’t,” Trump began in an unscripted salute to the patient and devoted crowd. “And I want to thank everybody because they did the right thing. They saw lightning. And I said, ‘there’s no way; if we have to speak in front of one person at 4 in the morning, I’m going to be here.’
“There’s no way we can be deterred. And they estimated they had 375,000 people before everybody had to leave, and they now have 150,000 people. It’s the craziest thing anyone’s ever seen.
“And I want to just thank you. And I feel so badly about some people. They left it; they couldn’t get back. But, you’re very special people, and we have a very special country. Thank you very much.”
’56 patriots put everything at risk’ for ‘victory for the ages’
“They declare that all men are created equal; that they are endowed with sacred unalienable rights by the hand of our creator, and that among these are life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Trump said, “and signing their names to the roster of freedom.”
“Those 56 patriots put everything at risk. Stepped onto the stage of destiny and seized a victory for the ages. And that’s what it was,” he said. “And this is an evening for the ages. I believe this is something very special. This is bigger than if we didn’t have the lightning blaring. We had lightning blaring. But this is bigger, little more inconvenient, but it’s bigger, I think, in its own way it’s more beautiful. From the beginning, we were a nation that live by the motto victory or death and live free or die.”
‘We will always be the best’
“God bless the immortal patriots of 1776, and long live the cause of independence,” Trump said. “May it reign forever and ever and ever. We will always be on top. We will never let our country fall. We will always be the best.”
“Our founders not only won our liberty, they secured it with the most righteous political document ever conceived: It’s called the Constitution of the United States,” Trump said. “Very special, and it’s because of their genius that we remain the finest people on the planet.”
Honoring 11 Gold Star families
“We are honored to be joined by 11 Gold Star family members,” Trump said. “The Gold Star family – that is one of the great tributes. It’s one of the great honors, a tough honor. There’s nothing tougher than that. But these are amazing people.”
Next stop, the moon, then a mission to Mars
“We’re going to be going to Mars very soon, and I think that’s something that we do have in my mind,” Trump said, hearkening to the historic John F. Kennedy going to the moon speech excerpt.
“And we’re going to do the moon and we’re going to go from there. We’re going to go to Mars, and we’re going to continue to be way ahead.”
Defeating communism: We ‘cast the hammer and sickle into oblivion’
“All these talks from the communists, they haven’t got a chance – not even a chance,” Trump said; a theme he reiterated multiple times in the speech. “We don’t want communists in our country. Never worked and it never will work.”
Communism will always be “a loser,” Trump added later.
“Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world only to have that menace rears its ugly head right back here in America. We’re not going to let it happen. We like to stop a threat like that immediately and before it begins,” Trump said. “It’s like a cancer. You got to cut it out. You got to cut it out fast.”
Trump added a warning to potential future communist opposition around the globe.
“The Stars and Stripes cast the hammer and sickle into oblivion before,” Trump said, “and we will do it again if necessary.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be necessary. I think people have learned. They’ve learned what to do and how to handle it, and we’ll get a handle it very well.”
‘Our destiny is written by God’
“We have thrived and flourished because our founders were great, our cause was just, our people are brave, our culture is exceptional, and our destiny is written by God,” Trump said near the end of the speech he apparently cut short after vowing earlier this week to deliver an hours-long address to the world.
“And as we can see here tonight, after 250 years, the spirit of 1776 still lives within us all. It still roars in the hearts of our nation’s capital. It still burns in the heart of every patriot, thunders through every city and town, and is still lights the entire world with the glow of American liberty. And there is nothing like that.”
250 and ‘just getting started’: ‘Best is yet to come’; ‘dawn of the golden age’
“At 250 years old, we may be the oldest constitutional republic on earth, but our country is just getting started because the best is yet to come: This is only the dawn of the golden age of America,” Trump said in his conclusion, leading directly into the National Mall fireworks display.
“And on this 250th 4th of July, we declare, just as they did two and a half centuries ago, that for our country and for our children and for the cause of liberty, we are going to take our country to new levels, to levels not reached,” Trump continued. “We’re going to make it bigger, better, stronger, and we’re going to love it even more.”
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“And I just want to thank you,” he added, finishing with words off the script. “The inconvenience of lightning can do that, but lightning will never stop you. And I want to thank everybody and we love you all. And it’s an honor to be your president. Thank you. God bless you all.”
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