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U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a roughly 40-minute address to approximately 150,000 people on the National Mall Saturday night, marking the 250th anniversary of American independence, praising the United States as humanity's greatest achievement while repeatedly branding communism a threat that must be "cut out."
Trump took the stage shortly after 11 p.m., more than an hour late, after severe weather forced temporary evacuations from the Mall earlier in the evening.
Temperatures in Washington hit a record 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.4 degrees Celsius), an all-time high for July 4, with 160 million Americans under extreme weather warnings, according to the National Weather Service.
Thousands of attendees were ordered to evacuate the National Mall before the address because of approaching thunderstorms. Many streamed toward exits while others refused to leave or tried to surge back in, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondents at the scene.
Some attendees took refuge in nearby museums and federal buildings before the Mall was reopened.
Strong winds and rain disrupted earlier festivities across the country.
Fireworks in New York were pushed earlier, a concert in Philadelphia was evacuated, and celebrations on the Charles River in Boston were affected.
Trump opened by telling the crowd, "Good evening, America; if you think that was easy, it wasn't!"
He described the United States as "the home of freedom" and "the land of liberty," and declared it "the most extraordinary, most exceptional, most incredible nation ever to exist on the face of the earth."
Trump repeatedly targeted communism throughout the speech, framing it as an ideology incompatible with American values and linking the theme to recent Democratic Socialist primary victories ahead of November's midterm elections.
"We don't want communists in our country," Trump said, adding, "Never worked, and it never will work."
He used a graphic metaphor in his condemnation: "It's like a cancer; you got to cut it out, you got to cut it out fast."
"Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world, only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America," Trump said, adding, "We're not going to let it happen."
He did not name any specific political figures as communists.
Trump pointed to recent U.S. military actions abroad as examples of renewed American strength.
"You look at Venezuela, you look at Iran, we wiped it out, wiped out their military," he said.
He also highlighted military recruitment, saying, "To get into our military now is tough. Two years ago, we couldn't fill a job, and now it's overflowing."
Trump defended his record on gun rights, saying, "For almost six years that I was president, I guarded very, very powerfully your Second Amendment. They didn't do a thing to it."
He also promoted the SAVE America Act, calling for proof of citizenship to vote and restrictions on mail-in ballots.
Trump honored veterans and Gold Star families throughout the address, bringing to the stage elderly military veterans, including one aged 107.
Members of the NASA Artemis II crew also joined him on stage.
He featured flags from American history, including one of the first US flags ever made, the flag that draped Abraham Lincoln's casket and a flag recovered from the sunken USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.
Trump declared, "The spirit of 1776 still lives in us all," before concluding: "The best is yet to come. This is only the dawn of the golden age of America."
A fireworks display featuring more than 850,000 fireworks began after Trump's remarks, organized by Freedom 250, and lasting approximately 40 minutes, roughly twice the length of a traditional July 4 fireworks show on the National Mall.
Trump and the first lady watched with other VIPs from a temporary building near the stage.
A Quinnipiac University poll released around the anniversary showed 61 percent of Americans believed the United States was not living up to the ideals stated in the Declaration of Independence.
Earlier in the day, near Capitol Hill, masked individuals, some carrying Confederate flags and others wearing logos associated with the white nationalist group Patriot Front, marched in front of Union Station.
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