In a Saturday rally on the eve of Independence Day, former President Donald Trump told a crowd gathered in Sarasota, Fla., that Independence Day and America’s respect for its founders “will never be purged from history or canceled from our hearts.”
“Tomorrow we will celebrate 245 years of glorious American Independence: It will not be canceled, by the way,” Trump said Saturday. “And we will teach young people across the country that George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock will forever be American heroes.”
Referencing figures like Washington during his Saturday speech, Trump said, “People want to take their names off buildings. Can you believe it? They took names of buildings like George Washington. And I told you this is where they’re coming from.”
“We’re not going to let that happen,” Trump added. “They will never be purged from history or canceled from our hearts.”
Trump’s remarks came in reference to “cancel culture,” and criticisms of U.S. founders and other American historical figures. In the final months of his term last year, Trump raised issues with demonstrators and local governments taking down statues of U.S. historical figures like Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln and criticisms of other historical figures and events within the U.S. education system. Trump tried to counteract this “cancel culture” by forming the 1776 Commission to “restore patriotic education to our schools.”
Trump then directed his criticism at President Joe Biden, saying, “If Biden and the radical Democrats get their way, you can kiss your suburbs, your fourth of July, your barbecue, and you can kiss the American dream goodbye.”
Biden ended Trump’s 1776 Commission in an executive order titled “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” his first executive order after taking office.
“The mission for all of us here tonight is to preserve the legacy of July 4, 1776, and to defend our liberty from the radical left movement that seeks to cancel this date, demolish our heritage, and destroy our beloved nation,” Trump said. “In just five months, the Biden administration has launched an all out assault on everything we cherish and we value under Joe Biden and the left.”
During his remarks, Trump also praised Florida and Floridians “who stand strong for faith, and family, of God and country, and never forget free and fair elections and strong borders.”
Trump also criticized Biden’s border policies.
“Tonight, I want to speak to every border agent, ICE officer, and law enforcement professional who Joe Biden has cruelly betrayed,” Trump said. “He’s betrayed. They lied during the campaign. I told you they were lying, but a lot of people didn’t believe me. They lied like hell.”
Trump’s criticisms of Biden’s border policies also come in the weeks after Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis deployed state troopers and sheriffs to Arizona and Texas, to assist those border states with border protection efforts.
