# Trump Mount Rushmore Speech (July 2026) [[Donald Trump]]'s July 3, 2026 address at Mount Rushmore, delivered on the eve of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence to kick off his [[America 250]] festivities. After opening platitudes about American exceptionalism, the speech pivoted into an extended warning about a domestic "communist menace" — the most sweeping presidential anticommunism since the era of [[McCarthyism]] and an escalation of the midterm frame Trump debuted at the [[Trump Faith and Freedom Coalition Speech]]. Ahead of the trip, Trump posted a video showing his own likeness added to a golden Mount Rushmore alongside Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lincoln, opening with the text "Art of the vision." ## The frame Trump cast his political opponents as communists — a claim manufactured after [[Democratic Socialists of America]]-aligned candidates won Democratic primaries and NYC mayor [[Zohran Mamdani]] rose to prominence. As the [[Communism]] and [[Trump Faith and Freedom Coalition Speech]] pages detail, democratic socialism is a distinct ideology operating within the capitalist system; the frame works by collapsing it into communism. The irony receipt, noted by Heather Cox Richardson: the only actor actually taking government stakes in private enterprise is the [[Second Trump Administration]] itself. ## Quote receipts > [!quote] You can be a communist or you can be a patriot. You cannot be both. > — Mount Rushmore, July 3, 2026. Rendered in full: "You can be loyal to Karl Marx or you can be loyal to America. You can be a communist or you can be a patriot. You cannot be both." Standalone receipt: [[Donald Trump - communist or patriot cannot be both]]. > [!quote] 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. > — Escalating the threat framing above two world wars and 9/11. Standalone receipt: [[Donald Trump - communism greater threat than 9-11]]. > [!quote] There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success. > — Braiding anticommunism with anti-immigrant nativism. > [!quote] We will not lose an election for 100 years. > — Trump's promise if the Senate ends the [[Filibuster]] and Congress passes what he called the "Save America Act" — the voter-suppression [[SAVE Act]] — making the electoral purpose explicit. Standalone receipt: [[Donald Trump - not lose an election for 100 years]]. ## Why it matters The speech ties the [[Red Scare]] revival directly to the 2026 midterm strategy: Trump told supporters "America will never be a communist country" and that "we can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms," then demanded the filibuster's end and passage of the [[SAVE Act]]. He continued the theme at a rain-shortened National Mall rally the next night, and — per Richardson — began posting before dawn on July 5 and posted more than 100 times attacking Democrats. HCR reads the intensity, exceeding even McCarthy-era excess, as a sign of panic rather than confidence, arriving amid disapproval near 59% and a cascade of corruption stories. ## See also - [[Trump Faith and Freedom Coalition Speech]] — the June debut of the "godless communists" frame - [[2026 Stump Speeches Hub]] · [[2026 Midterms Hub]] - [[Red Scare]] · [[McCarthyism]] — the historical playbook - [[America 250]] — the occasion - [[SAVE Act]] · [[Filibuster]] — the concrete asks