President Donald Trump’s incisive critique of communism and its creeping influence in American politics and culture grabbed most of the headlines from his pair of speeches this weekend – particularly as it contrasted with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s remarks on July 3. But the most important moments in Trump’s oratory were those where he articulated how the greatness of America is defined by the greatness of its people. It is only thanks to the individual courage and heroism of generations of patriots that freedom has been preserved.
What the country saw in Mamdani and Trump’s speeches was two conflicting visions about what it means to be an American and what the last 250 years of history represent. Which vision ultimately wins out will determine what kind of country we become – and whether the America that celebrates 300 years of independence looks anything like the country that celebrated 250 years or the country that was born on July 4, 1776.
To Mamdani, as to the modern left and most of the Democrat Party, the American story is one of victimhood and oppression. In an angry, spiteful attack on the country that gave him a home and the opportunity to become the elected leader of its largest metropolis, Mamdani derided America as “a nation of contradictions.” He smeared its builders, innovators, and entrepreneurs – those who create jobs and opportunity for anyone willing to work hard – as cruel and exploitative.
Mamdani cleverly framed his remarks within the language of America’s aspirational creed, but that thin veneer does little to mask the underlying call to all-out Marxist class warfare. To hear Mamdani tell it, the villains of America’s last 250 years are the landlords, business owners, and anyone guilty of the unforgivable crime of amassing wealth through hard work – what the rest of us know as “the American Dream.”
He delivered this diatribe from behind George Washington’s desk – a visual symbol that, to Mamdani and his ilk, the semiquincentennial is not about celebrating America’s past and the foundations of the country. Rather, it is about ripping down those foundations and replacing them with something entirely new and totally divorced from the founding promise laid out in the Declaration of Independence.
Mamdani hammered home this implicit threat with perhaps the most chilling line in his remarks: “The truth, my friends, is that America is exceptional because here, nothing is fixed into place.”
That statement is a direct repudiation of the Declaration, which affirms that certain rights are “unalienable.” Yes, the signers were taking the audacious step of declaring a rebellion against the most powerful empire on earth, but they were doing so to build a nation where certain things are indeed fixed into place – among them the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” They also were doing so in order to protect and fix into place those uniquely American traditions and institutions that had evolved from more than a century of European influence in this new land.
Mamdani, however, completely dismisses these traditions and institutions. Addressing “our newest Americans,” Mamdani tells them that they have “the power to determine what America means.” Consider, for a moment, how truly radical that is: Mamdani is asserting that the newest arrivals in our land have the power and the right to fundamentally alter what it means to be an American. What he is advocating for is not the classic analogy of the “melting pot,” but the full-scale replacement of American identity with something totally foreign.
But as much as Mamdani tried to stoke the flames of anti-Americanism and sectarianism, he was dramatically undercut and overshadowed by the two-part rhetorical tour de force from President Trump.
Trump’s remarks – on Friday at Mt. Rushmore and on Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial – stand on their own as a brilliant exposition on the significance of 1776, what makes America exceptional, and how we can keep our exceptional identity for the next 250 years. But they also delivered a devastating counterpunch to the ideology that Mamdani and his socialist compatriots are mainstreaming.
Trump did take some time to directly address the rising threat of socialism and communism and how that ideology is totally antithetical to the Declaration and everything good about America. His line that “you can be a communist or you can be a patriot – you cannot be both” was particularly memorable, and conservatives should embrace that framing.
But the true power of Trump’s speeches was how they worked in concert with one another to articulate what it means to be an American. Trump’s thesis, outlined on July 3, was that America is great because her people are great – and that greatness is a reflection of the American people’s conception of themselves. We are a strong nation when we honor our heroes and teach our children to live up to the example set by figures like those memorialized in stone on Mt. Rushmore.
“The triumph of American independence was the result of the most extraordinary people in history, the most extraordinary culture in history, and the most extraordinary ideas in history, all creating the most extraordinary republic ever,” Trump said. “Tonight, on the threshold of our 250th year, we stand beneath the monument of these heroes, a true group of unbelievable people, and we rededicate ourselves to being a nation as big, bold, noble, and as great as these American giants.”
“Liberty has prevailed here because of the culture and character of the people who declared it, defended it and preserved it,” he continued. “The identity of a nation is the destiny of a nation, and America has a destiny like no other because we are a people like no other.”
This is the direct opposite of what Mamdani’s speech asserts. Mamdani says that America is a nation of victims who are oppressed by “nativists” and anyone with wealth or power. Trump counters that America is a nation of “dreamers and believers, warriors and explorers, doers and fighters.”
The dazzling spectacle on the National Mall on Saturday served as proof of Trump’s thesis. “Americans must never forget that we are a historic and heroic people, with a historic spirit and heroic purpose on this beautiful earth of ours,” Trump said. “We are made of the courage and the fire and the flesh and the blood of the best and the bravest people this world has ever produced.”
In classic Trump fashion, the President recounted the stories of some of those brave Americans and welcomed living legends who were in attendance – men like Colonel Paris Davis, who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Vietnam; 104-year-old Ken Schubring, who survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; 107-year-old Navy Lieutenant Arthur Rose, who took part in the D-Day landings; and Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmidt.
In another powerful throughline in the speech, Trump displayed several noteworthy American flags, including the flag that flew victorious over Saratoga in 1777, the first flag to fly over the Brooklyn Bridge, the flag that went down with the Arizona at Pearl Harbor, the flag that flew atop Iwo Jima, and the flag that flew on the Wright Brothers’ airplane.
These flags are tangible artifacts of American exceptionalism. They are a reminder that while the Declaration of Independence is a collection of ideas worthy of continual celebration, America is not just an idea. It is a nation, a people with a history and culture. It is a physical place with institutions, traditions, customs, and laws worth defending.
That is the crux of the conflict between Mamdani’s and Trump’s visions for America. Mamdani asks Americans to trade their birthright for endless victimhood and grievance politics. Trump, meanwhile, challenges Americans to remember that liberty was not inherited by accident. It is the legacy of 250 years of hard work and sacrifice, and it is the responsibility of all of us in the present to pick up that mantle and carry it forward.
The choice of which vision to follow should not be a difficult one.
Shane Harris is the Editor-in-Chief of AMAC Newsline. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
I love that we finally have a president that loves the country, and he gave I think a great speech. Why on earth was Commie Mandani’s speech even news worthy,,he’s just a mayor of one of the worst run cities in America (now more than over).
Excellent essay, Mr. Harris ! Our local Socialists seem to have no idea of history. Do they forget that communism was a total disaster and crumbled away??? Take a look around the world. Those countries leaning towards socialism are getting weaker and weaker ! We are so very lucky to now have a country that stands up against all the whining leftists [and terrorists] who think they will have it so much better by surrendering our beliefs and becoming drones in a “socialist paradise” Happy Birthday USA. Let us keep to our traditions of greatness !!
If Mamdani, Omar, and Tlaib think the US is SOOOO bad, why don’t they go back to the ****hole countries they came from? I’d help them pack!
Another great article Shane Harris. Thank you for quotes from Trumps Mount Rushmore speech. I stayed up to hear Trumps 4th. of July speech, and it was an inspiring, patriotic speech. How true that a person cannot be socialist/communist and patriot in our country. Mamdani might have his moment in the sun, but in the end his negative view of our USA will fail.
John Adams once noted that “only a moral and virtuous people can maintain a republic”. The voters who elected Zohran Mamdani are neither moral nor virtuous.
Maybe if we had tightened up the borders decades ago none of these whackos would be here! Whatever possessed us to not only invite them into our country but to also “redesign” the country to fit them! My grandparents came to America just after the First World War from Yugoslavia. Never once did I hear my grandpa complain that there were no signs in Serbian. He learned to speak English, brought up his kids to speak English, worked in the West Virginia coal mines and the New York Central railroad in Niagara Falls, N.Y. bought a home and enjoyed the many blessings of being an American. I may not agree with everything Trump says or does but I am 100% behind his desire to take back America.
AMAC is the Association for Mature American Citizens. It’s disheartening to see the negative immature comments from several on this post. Pessimism and criticism of our President is not what one would expect from a member of AMAC. We just celebrated a milestone in our country’s history – 250 years – and it’s something for which we can be proud. Let’s quit the negativity and stand on the principles that have made this country great. Communism is not the answer and never will be. American democracy works and we are the greatest nation in the history of the world!, and our President knows it Period. Paragraph.
Very simple and straightforward. Trump loves this country and he believes in God. Mamdani hates his country hates, God and represents the party of Satan. His Day of judgment is coming. It will be final and the sentence will be eternal. Unfortunately for this country since it has turned his back on God, I fear God is going to lift his protective hand
President Trump was brilliant!
Hate filled liberals love Mamdani! Mamdani is another woke joke who makes promises he cannot and will not keep. Another disgusting politician from a very RICH family. Why do his parents live rent free in subsidized housing provided by Columbia University????
They are multi-millionaires! Why?
Mamdani disgraced the Washington heritage by using Washington’s desk to deliver an Anti American speech. Trump clearly showed the striving for excellence and new horizons that marked America’s history and the drive that will help American continue to achieve.
I am 67 years old. I have lived through some of America’s greatest moments (Landing on the Moon) and some its worst moments (Watergate), to name only a few. Never would I have imagined that citizens of the largest city, NYC, would be so ignorant, so short-sighted as to elect a Democratic Socialist! I remember listening to the stories of people, who bravely risked their necks to leave the Soviet Union, Communist Bulgaria, Romania, Belarus and worst of all China and Albania. I remember the brutal invasion of Czechoslovakia by the USSR and the violent oppression of the Communist Chinese government at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
I have a PhD in history and I’m convinced that America’s public education system is BROKE, BROKE, BROKE. Our children are taught a revisionist history of America. When I was a child I knew that Native Americans, Irish immigrants, Black slaves, Japanese Americans and Hispanics were mistreated and yes, even exploited. I was NOT taught this was ok. Rather, I was taught that America’s ideals were a work in progress and I had a responsibility to assist in making those ideals a reality.
Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society has become a Great Disaster. He took from the Black community their Faith in God, their Fathers and hard working bread earners and replaced with a government check. Again all one has to do is read the historical sources, not the moronic comments of the woke Left, Socialists and Communists. Where is J. Edgar Hoover when you need him!
Nice juxtaposition of two competing ideologies. Those of us who read this will choose the “right” one. We cannot afford to let the darkness win.
Mamdani is nothing more than a puppet of the globalists, who are using the Communists – er, I mean the Democrats – and the Muzzies to destroy the United States and Western Civilization from within, to be replaced by The One World Government/New World Order, where the globalists run the world for their personal gain and benefit and to the detriment of the other 99.9999% of the world’s population.
Will someone please put a dirty sock in Mamdami’s mouth and send him to Antartica? He is a brainless motormouth! He deserves absolutely nothing! God will see that he gets what he deserves in the lake of fire soon.
Mamdani is a monster in waiting. Take off his fancy clothes and he is a real tyrant in the making.
Mamdani rewrote history. Many democrats are doing that as well. History cannot be rewritten. Our founding fathers were not perfect but they came here fleeing the religion prosecution from their kings and princes. And formed a nation and then fought the most powerful nation in the world and won. They gave the citizens then and those to come, the freedom nowhere else in the world has had. The communist in our country who think the people can rule themselves without jobs without healthcare without education without law and order. Are very much mistaken. Such a country does not exist. In this country every day people have become millionaires. Not by sitting on their rear ends. But through hard work and sacrifice. The big business moguls have made the Mamdani’s, the Pelosi’s, the Schumer’s, the AOC’s et al rich. They stayed in the House and Senate with donations from these same millionaires. Obama, Clinton, Carter all became very rich after they were president. Not from the average Joe on the street. Mamdani got elected by these same millionaires. And now they all are leaving NYC, Seattle, CA and any dem state where the taxes on businesses are going up. Mamdani and all other communist mayors elsewhere are going to fail and throw their cities into bankruptcy and the state for decades to come. Not only will the rich leave but the poor as well. If there are no jobs there are no taxes and Mamdani et al won’t be able to feed those who stay behind. They talk but there is no substance to their words. President Trump honored America. The communists don’t. They hate America because their policies is making them money and they are not giving that up. President Trump honors the people now and those going before us. Because if you don’t learn from the past you are doomed.
Trump stomps on Zohan speech big time
BRAVO! AMERICA IS MY HOME.
commie mommysdummy n others don’t understand that we’re a Constitutional Republic.
Might not be these dumb people’s fault, as years of socio/communist doctrine from grade school through college have these idiots brainwashed.
We simply need to stop helping these people by not bailing them out. When people start kicking n screaming, looking to hang these jerks from the rafters, they’ll realize “socialism” is a failed idea. Remain steadfast. Let these flim-flam con men try to dig themselves out. Tough love…
Mamdani is the perfect example of why many of these Muslim foreigners should not be allowed into this country. They do not assimilate, accept the culture, and be proud new Americans as our forebears did. I’ve seen these people on the news kneeling on prayer rugs in American cities blocking traffic, and having rallies chanting “Death to America.” These people do not belong here. They do not want to be Americans, they want to import their own ideologies, religions and cultures over here, to our detriment. The absolute scariest thing about it all is we have millions of hare brained citizens here with whom they have traction. It’s because of the “collective” propaganda the young have gotten in the schools in so many places. They simply don’t understand the real life consequences of Mamdani’s and his ilk’s philosophy and how it stands in contradiction to American life.
Did anyone notice that idiot commie was sitting on the wrong side of the desk? All the draws were facing the camera!!
Why not encourage Mamdami to bring his past hero’s foreward as President Trump did.
Then Mamdami can explain what they did in their past to go down in history . F- off socialist.
You can vote your way into communism, but have to shoot your way out of it.
Mamdami like osama bin obama is not an American and his voters and followers are not American.
There is no such thing as a free lunch some one will pay.
I feel bad for the young crowd deceived by three card mandami they will pay big time.
well mamdmmit only lies,check your koran,I already burned mine.it ok’s muslims to lie to the infidels(us).so it shouldn’t have even been a contest.
Mamdani speaks and Mamdani acts, two different things, if blind choose to listen but are too dumb to see there is no help or hope for them, they will destroy themselves and all around them.
At the risk of becoming extreme, I have come to view anything emitting from Mamdani’s pie hole as a declaration of war against our nation and those propagandized, mentally challenged individuals that stand behind him as his combat troops.
The only thing the Left want fixed in place is their endless search for more power.
Thank you for this great article. I read it several times and it is outstanding. The Communists keep trying to RUIN the United States. The Communists has destroyed out young people. This group only knows hate and to destroy this great country. They want everything to be given to them for FREE. SHAMEFUL.
The contrast between the two speeches is truly outstanding. Thanks for the comparison and giving me more ideas of how to try and educate our young people in our real history and civics. Parents need to demand a thorough and true rendering of our history starting from the 3rd grade on up through high school. Reading, math, science and history should be the core subjects in our school curriculum. The communist teachers unions have been complicit in ruining our schools and turning out millions of uneducated young people. It has to stop.
Our President out shines many, but the problem is, he’s speaking to the choir. The rest are listening to the lies and brainwashing of the radical left….and believing it and voting for it obviously. They aren’t looking at the policies or what they’re doing; they are mesmerized by the smiles, the promises and the free stuff. We’re in trouble!!!
Great description, by this writer, on the real difference between a president who loves his country, and this mayor, who’d love to change it from freedom, to enslavery and hunger.
These people have been taught to hate Trump so much they are willing to destroy their own country. The problem starts in the schools.
Sadly, far too many folks just won’t connect to making the comparison and drawing the conclusion this article presents. That’s our greatest difficulty today….too many folks just sitting on their duffs, not paying attention, not even caring enough to acknowledge they can sit on their duffs freely. It just doesn’t matter to them. As long as their little nest is not pooped in, they are happy. So, lets hope more folks will sit up and take notice now before it’s past the time when that will make a difference…..and I believe we are getting pretty close to that point of no return. Yep, I’m a bit of a pessimist. Sorry.
Yes! Excellent essay, Mr. Harris ! Socialist/communist don care about our history, and they don’t care about their own history. They are evil and only care about their power and control.
Something very uncomfortable with American Voters. I am ashamed and sad
for them.
If this country is SOOO bad,why doesn’t mandami go to some socialis country of his love? Mmmmmmm. i wonder…..
Ayn Rand’s fiction is becoming fact.
I read somewhere else that they hated Trump’s speech and thought Madani speech was great.
The danger has never been Communism, Socialism, or Democratic Socialism. The danger has always been Totalitarianism, and the United States is closer to that extreme than ever before under the current Fascist regime.
What Country allows you to make Home Mortgage Payments for 30 years , but never allows you to own it ? That sounds a lot like Communism .
Did you watch Trumps speech? Nothing he said resembled one thing you wrote. Someone needs to be the Principal in Billy Madison here and call out that although the speech was full of words, and some trigger words, Trump rambled about mostly nothing for hours. “Nothing he said even remotely comes close to any sort of answer to the question for what America is or is becoming”