President Trump vows to ‘safeguard’ America’s values in July Fourth speech

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President Trump vows to ‘safeguard’ America’s values in July Fourth speech

President Donald Trump has vowed to “safeguard” America’s values from enemies within in a speech to celebrate the Fourth of July.

r Trump watched paratroopers float to the ground in a tribute to America, greeted his audience of front-line medical workers and others central in responding to the coronavirus pandemic and opened up on those who “slander” him and disrespect the country’s past.

“We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and the people who, in many instances, have absolutely no clue what they are doing,” he said.

“We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children.

“And we will defend, protect and preserve (the) American way of life, which began in 1492 when Columbus discovered America.”

Even as officials across the country pleaded with Americans to curb their enthusiasm for large Fourth of July crowds, Mr Trump enticed the masses with a “special evening” of tributes and fireworks staged with new US coronavirus infections on the rise.

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President Trump and first lady Melania Trump stand on the Truman Balcony of the White House as they watch a fireworks display (Patrick Semansky/AP)

But the crowds wandering the National Mall for the night’s air show and fireworks were strikingly thinner those the gathering for last year’s jammed celebration.

Many who showed up wore masks, unlike those seated close together for Mr Trump’s South Lawn event, and distancing was easy to do for those scattered across the sprawling space.

The president did not hesitate to use the country’s birthday as an occasion to assail segments of the country that do not support him.

Our past is not a burden to be cast awayDonald Trump

Carrying on a theme he pounded on a day earlier against the backdrop of the Mount Rushmore monuments, he went after those who have torn down statues or think some of them, particularly those of Confederate figures, should be removed.

“Our past is not a burden to be cast away,” Mr Trump said.

In many parts of the country, authorities discouraged mass gatherings for the holiday after days that have seen Covid-19 cases grow at a rate not experienced even during the deadliest phase of the pandemic in the spring.

In New York, once the epicentre, people were urged to avoid crowds and Nathan’s Famous July Fourth hot dog eating contest happened at an undisclosed location without spectators on hand, in advance of the evening’s televised fireworks spectacular over the Empire State Building.

In Philadelphia, mask and glove-wearing descendants of the signers of the Declaration of Independence participated in a virtual tapping of the famed Liberty Bell on Independence Mall and people were asked to join from afar by clinking glasses, tapping pots or ringing bells.

Mr Trump’s endorsement of big gatherings at the National Mall and at Mount Rushmore came as many communities decided to scrap fireworks, parades and other holiday traditions in hopes of avoiding yet more surges in infection.

PA

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Coronavirus: ‘I didn’t know he wasn’t going to come back’ – widow of COVID-19 victim reveals heartbreak

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Coronavirus: ‘I didn’t know he wasn’t going to come back’ – widow of COVID-19 victim reveals heartbreak

The widow of a community pharmacist who died from COVID-19 has spoken of the heartbreak of not being able to see her husband before he passed away.

Kanan Patel fought back tears as she described how her husband Jayesh “walked towards the ambulance in his slippers” and said that was the last time she saw him.

“He looked just like a skeleton. He had lost so much weight. He said to me ‘get me a spoon because I can’t drink water with a glass’.”

Image:
Jayesh Patel dispensed medicine in a pharmacy

Mrs Patel believes her husband caught the virus as he dispensed medicine in a local pharmacy.

As a key worker she was very worried about him contracting COVID-19 but she says he always took precautions to protect himself and his family as much as he could.

As her husband’s condition deteriorated, Mrs Patel felt “something was not right”. That is when she called the ambulance.

“He just went out in his slippers. I didn’t know he wasn’t going to come back.” It was the last time she saw her husband alive.

Family of Jayesh Patel, community pharmacist who died from COVID-19, pray for him
Image:
Kanan Patel says her husband always took precautions to protect himself and his family as much as he could

When they spoke on the telephone after Mr Patel was admitted to hospital, he asked his family to pray for him.

The last text Kanan received from Jayesh was after the doctors treating him confirmed he had COVID-19. He was then moved into intensive care and placed on a ventilator.

“I had a call from the consultant. He said ‘We can’t do anything for him. We are giving him 100% oxygen but nothing is going through’.”

Mrs Patel was certain her husband would recover. She urged the hospital not to take him off the ventilator.



The team in Coventry spoke to Sky News ahead of its 72nd birthday which will be supported by a final clap across the UK.







Special report: The NHS – catastrophe brings change

But when Mr Patel’s condition deteriorated further, Kanan went to the hospital with some holy water and a small idol of the Hindu god Ganesh. She handed these over to a nurse in the hospital car park and asked that the holy water be placed on her dying husband’s lips in accordance with her faith.

At 11am the next morning the same nurse phoned Mrs Patel to tell her that Jayesh had passed away and she had carried out Mrs Patel’s wishes.

“That’s how my goodbye to him was.”

Jayesh Patel is one of the tens of thousands of COVID-19 victims who were remembered on Saturday in a special tribute at St Paul’s Cathedral and when landmark monuments across the capital were cast in blue light.



Downing Street goes blue for the NHS







Downing Street goes blue for the NHS

World famous buildings including Downing Street and Wembley Stadium turned blue on the eve of the 72nd birthday of the NHS.

To mark the occasion, Boris Johnson will meet NHS workers in the Number 10 garden on Sunday afternoon before a nationwide round of applause at 5pm.

Speaking at a Downing Street press conference on Friday, the prime minister urged the public to clap for “those who have worked tirelessly and selflessly to help the nation get through this pandemic”.

The initiative follows the success of the weekly Clap for Carers, and it is hoped the applause will become an annual tradition.

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NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said he hopes the public will use the anniversary as an opportunity to “say a heartfelt thank you” to hospital staff.

Sir Simon said: “This year has been the most challenging in NHS history, with staff displaying extraordinary dedication, skill and compassion to care for the 100,000 patients with COVID-19 who needed specialist hospital treatment and many others besides.

“During this testing time our nurses, doctors, physios, pharmacists and countless more colleagues were sustained by the support of the public, not least through the weekly applause for key workers.

“No health service, not even the NHS, could have coped alone with this coronavirus pandemic.”

The government’s latest figures showed that 44,131 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Thursday.

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Katrina Kaif has a sweet birthday wish for ‘fitness partner’ Yasmin Karachiwala

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Katrina Kaif has a sweet birthday wish for ‘fitness partner’ Yasmin Karachiwala

Image Source : INSTAGRAM/KATRINAKAIF

Katrina Kaif has a sweet birthday wish for ‘fitness partner’ Yasmin Karachiwala

Since fitness is important for Bollywood actresses, their fitness trainers are very close to their heart since they know the celebs daily routine of what they eat, how they workout, etc. Similar is the case with B’town beauty Katrina Kaif who shares a special bonding with celebrity fitness trainer Yasmin Karachiwala. This is the reason why the ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ actress shared an adorable birthday message for Yasmin, who also happens to be her close friend. Taking to Instagram, Katrina shared a lovely video compiled with all the throwback photos from during their vacations, workout sessions, or casual hangouts. Not only this, she even wrote a heartfelt note for Yasmin with whom she has been training for years now.

Sharing the video on Instagram, Katrina wrote alongside, “Dear Yasy, it’s your big birthday. Just your presence always make everything seem better, your positivity, your good advice, you always challenge yourself, if I can do it, you can do it better and faster. I’m so lucky to have you as my fitness partner and friend. I hope we are together forever. I know you call me your sunshine but you are my sunshine.”

Have a look at the same here:

When the COVID-19 lockdown began, Katrina, who is an avid social media user became even more active and shared videos and photos of her quarantine activity. One amongst those was workout at home which she enjoyed the most with her dear friend and trainer Yasmin. Sharing a video, she wrote, “Can’t go to the gym so sharing the workout that Yas and I did at home. Stay safe and be active if you can.” She further included a list of exercises including squats, leg raises, sit-ups, push-ups, planks and mountain climbers. 

After a few days, another video was put up captioning which she wrote, “#WorkoutFromHome #Part2 Since we are all practicing #SocialDistancing @yasminkarachiwala and I worked out at our homes and put the workouts together for you to do at yours. Stay home stay safe.”

On the professional front, Katrina was last seen in Ali Abbas Zafar’s 2018 film Bharat opposite superstar Salman Khan. She is awaiting the release of Rohit Shetty directorial ‘Sooryavanshi’ starring Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn and Ranveer Singh.

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Coronavirus Australia update LIVE: Global cases surpass 11.1 million, two more postcodes and nine public housing towers in lockdown in Victoria; Australia death toll at 104

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Coronavirus Australia update LIVE: Global cases surpass 11.1 million, two more postcodes and nine public housing towers in lockdown in Victoria; Australia death toll at 104

The residents of the buildings have been told they are not allowed to leave their homes and police have been stationed in the area.

“This is not going to be a pleasant experience for those residents but I have a message for those residents: this is not about punishment but protection,” he said.

“We cannot have this virus spread. We have to do everything we can to contain the virus and that is why staying in your unit, staying in your flat, is absolutely essential.

He said many people in the buildings had pre-existing health conditions and that “people will die, it’s as simple as that”, if the virus took hold.

He said an “enormous amount of work” was being put in to provide food, mental health, drug and alcohol services, medical support and domestic violence support for the towers’ residents in a culturally and linguistically appropriate way.

“We will meet all the needs of each and every one of those residents,” he said.

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Tokyo governor favoured to win re-election for handling pandemic

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Tokyo governor favoured to win re-election for handling pandemic

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike is poised to be re-elected in Sunday’s polls, buoyed by public support for her coronavirus handling despite a recent rise in infections that has raised concerns of a resurgence of the disease.

The first woman to head the Japanese capital, Koike, 67, is also viewed as a potential candidate to succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when his term ends in September 2021. For now, she says she’s focused on protecting the lives of the 14 million people in Tokyo, a megacity with a $1 trillion economy.

“Fighting against the coronavirus for the residents of Tokyo is my first and foremost responsibility,” she said on the eve of the election.

In her campaign message online, Koike pledged to balance disease prevention and the economy under Tokyo’s “new normal”.

Tokyo’s coronavirus infections started to rebound in late June to reach 131 confirmed cases on Saturday, topping 100 for a third straight day and hitting a two-month high since early May. New daily cases have also spiked in recent weeks nationwide to about 19,700, with 977 deaths.

Tokyo closes shops, Kyoto keeps tourists away as virus spreads

Koike’s challengers include popular actor-turned-politician Taro Yamamoto and veteran lawyer Kenji Utsunomiya. Yamamoto wants to cancel the Tokyo Olympics and use the funds to help people hurt by the coronavirus crisis, while Utsunomiya, known as the Bernie Sanders of Japan, is calling for better welfare support for a more inclusive and diverse society.

Results are expected soon after polls close Sunday night. A recent poll by the Mainichi newspaper has Koike leading her challengers by a wide margin.

Among other things, Koike says Japan should have its own version of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She also tried to gain public support for a simpler version of the Tokyo Olympics after the games were postponed to next year due to the pandemic.

Though Koike has not fully delivered on promises to Tokyo residents to relieve congestion on commuter trains, ensure adequate availability of child and elder care facilities and end overwork, even her critics have lauded her handling of the pandemic. That’s in sharp contrast to Abe, who has been criticised for doing too little, too late.

As the pandemic deepened in the spring, Koike often upstaged fellow conservative Abe, whose support ratings have plunged due to his handling of the crisis and its severe impact on the economy, on top of a slew of scandals.

A former TV newscaster, Koike is stylish and media savvy. She earned the nickname “migratory bird” for hopping between parties and forming new alliances – at least seven times – a rarity among Japanese politicians famous for their loyalty to party factions.

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Kanye West Says He’s Running for President in 2020

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Kanye West Says He’s Running for President in 2020


Kanye West Says He’s Running for President in 2020 | Entertainment Tonight


































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Montana Gubernatorial Candidate Self-Quarantines After Wife Is Exposed To Kimberly Guilfoyle

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Montana Gubernatorial Candidate Self-Quarantines After Wife Is Exposed To Kimberly Guilfoyle

Montana Gubernatorial candidate and Congressman Greg Gianforte (R) is self-quarantining after both his wife and running mate were exposed to Donald Trump campaign official Kimberly Guilfoyle, who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, whose virus status was reported Friday, appeared to take no social distancing precautions nor wear a face mask during a recent campaign appearance.

Susan Gianforte and Kristen Juras, who is running for lieutenant governor in Montana, attended an event with Guilfoyle and Trump Jr. Tuesday. 

“Out of an abundance of caution and for the health and safety of others, they will self-quarantine, be tested for COVID-19, and suspend in-person campaign events pending test results,” said a spokesperson for Greg Gianforte.

A Facebook post featured a photo of Susan Gianforte, Juras, Guilfoyle and Trump Jr. None wore a mask nor maintained six feet of social distance, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help stem the spread of COVID-19.

Guilfoyle had been scheduled to attend the president’s event at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota Friday, but did not make an appearance.

The previous day Guilfoyle was filmed at a campaign stop in South Dakota speaking to a group of people without a mask and in close proximity to others, including her boyfriend, who also wasn’t wearing a mask.

The president’s son on Tuesday on social media ridiculed the use of a bandana to protect against COVID-19 transmission.

In a study published in the journal Physics of Fluids on Tuesday researchers at Florida Atlantic University found that bandanas helped protect against COVID-19 transmission by reducing the average distance that coughs traveled from 8 feet to 3.6 feet. Commercial cone masks reduced the distance to 8 inches, and a stitched, two-layer mask to 2.5 inches.

A number of people close to the president have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent months. Trump’s personal valet and Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary both tested positive for the virus in May.

Last month, several staffers who worked on Trump’s Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally and Secret Service officers also tested positive for the virus.

A HuffPost Guide To Coronavirus



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How much trouble is Huawei in?

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How much trouble is Huawei in?

Fresh US sanctions have cut off the Chinese tech company’s access to vital American technology to a greater extent than ever before. Countries and mobile network operators around the world are now questioning whether Huawei will be able to deliver on its 5G promises. And rising anti-China sentiment in India and elsewhere is not helping matters.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared last month that “the tide is turning against Huawei as citizens around the world are waking up to the danger of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state.”

Those remarks were “a bit pre-emptive,” said Carisa Nietsche, a researcher at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank.

Pompeo lauded countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland and Estonia for “only allowing trusted vendors in their 5G networks.” But Nietsche noted that many of those countries made up their minds last year, when they signaled they wouldn’t work with Huawei. And European countries with much bigger economies, such as the United Kingdom, France and Germany, have yet to announce a total ban on Huawei.

But there is “the beginning of a sea change in Europe,” Nietsche said.

European countries and mobile carriers are now worried that Huawei won’t be able to provide 5G infrastructure as promised given the “massive hit to their business” from the new US export controls, she said.

Huawei’s 5G business in ‘grave danger’

Huawei has been here before. Last year, the US government barred American firms from selling tech and supplies to the Shenzhen-based company without first obtaining a license to do so. Huawei stockpiled inventory and found alternative suppliers, and as a result, continued doing brisk business despite the US ban. The company’s overseas smartphone sales took a hit, though, because it was forced to release new models that weren’t able to access to popular Google apps.
Even after reporting a strong finish to 2019, however, Huawei warned that 2020 would be “difficult.”

That would prove to be all too true.

The latest US sanction announced in May cuts much deeper than last year’s ban. It applies to any global firms using American equipment to make semiconductors. The new rule restricts companies like TSMC, a Taiwan-based firm, from exporting computer chipsets and other key components to Huawei.

Without those chipsets, Huawei can’t build 5G base stations and other equipment, according to analysts at brokerage firm Jefferies.

“Based on the current direct export rule that the US put on, I really think that Huawei’s 5G equipment business is in grave danger,” Jefferies analyst Edison Lee said on a recent call with investors.

“If the law doesn’t change, and if the US-China tension does not de-escalate, then I think there’s a big risk that Huawei will stop being able to provide 5G equipment” from early next year, he added.

Asked for comment for this story, Huawei spokeswoman Evita Cao said “we continue to receive support from our customers,” without going into further detail.

The company said in May that it “categorically opposes” the latest US sanction, calling the new rule “discriminatory.”

“It will have a serious impact on a wide number of global industries” and damage “collaboration within the global semiconductor industry,” Huawei said in a statement. “We expect that our business will inevitably be affected,” it added.

That may already be happening in the United Kingdom.

US pushes for new crackdown on Huawei, raising concerns of retaliation against American companies
On Saturday, the UK-based Telegraph newspaper reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is poised to begin phasing out Huawei 5G tech in Britain “as soon as this year,” walking back a decision that granted Huawei a limited role in building that network.
Earlier last week, Oliver Dowden, the country’s digital and media secretary, said that the US sanctions will “likely have an impact on the viability of Huawei as a provider for the 5G network.”

“I am not a Sinophobe, I won’t be drawn into Sinophobia,” Johnson said on Tuesday. But “I do want to see our critical national infrastructure properly protected from hostile state vendors, so we need to strike that balance.”

Huawei said earlier this year that it has secured 91 commercial 5G contracts, more than half (47) are in Europe, 27 are in Asia and 17 are elsewhere in the world.

China tensions

The United States has long viewed Huawei warily, suspicious of how closely the company is tied to the Chinese Communist Party. The company maintains that it is a private firm owned by thousands of its employees.

Critics also say Beijing could force Huawei to spy on other nations. Huawei says that has never happened and if it did, the company would refuse such orders.

Yet even as it claims independence from Beijing, Huawei has been caught up in sparring between China and the United States, and to an increasing degree, the European Union and countries such as India that are growing more wary of China.

Desk dining and mandatory health checks: How Huawei is returning to work
The coronavirus pandemic has only strained relations further. Some countries, such as the United States, have blamed China for the outbreak, and others have been put off by what they see as Beijing’s aggressive response to criticism.
There was a moment during the pandemic “where China was able to assert itself on the global stage as a leader, and I think they fumbled that,” especially in Europe, after China sent masks and respirators of dubious quality to countries experiencing outbreaks, said Nietsche.
EU countries are concerned about their lopsided trade and investment relationship with China, and they have taken steps in recent months to prevent subsidized Chinese companies taking over the bloc’s industrial champions or winning public contracts. Beijing’s repression of the Uyghur ethnic minority in the northwest province of Xinjiang is another major area of concern.

There are now “excellent signals” coming from Germany and the United Kingdom “that they will move to exclude or at least will take Huawei out of the core [5G] network,” said Nietsche. Germany, for instance, is scrutinizing Huawei’s data flows to see if the company is breaching European laws, she said.

India, meanwhile, had been going back and forth over whether to include Huawei equipment in the country’s 5G network, said Chaitanya Giri, an analyst with Indian foreign policy think tank Gateway House. Huawei received the green light to participate in 5G trials late last year.

TikTok ban undercuts ByteDance in one of the world's biggest digital markets

But tensions between New Delhi and Beijing have risen dramatically in recent weeks after at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in border clashes with Chinese troops stationed in the Himalayas. China has also been singled out in India for blame over the coronavirus pandemic, according to Giri.

Some Indians have been calling for a boycott of Chinese goods. And in a move widely seen as retaliation against China, the Indian government last week banned TikTok and several other Chinese apps, saying they pose a “threat to sovereignty and integrity.”

Huawei may now get caught up in the escalating tensions, according to Giri. Public sentiment has now “consolidated, that we are not going to use any of the Chinese equipment,” he said.

What Europe and India share, according to Giri, is a growing sense of unease following years of substantial investment by China.

“Big democracies right now are singing in a chorus,” he said. “They understand what’s at stake.”

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Trump in campaign mode at White House’s Independence Day event

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Trump in campaign mode at White House’s Independence Day event

United States President Donald Trump has vowed to defeat the “radical left” in a July Fourth Independence Day speech at the White House, condemning recent efforts to remove or rethink monuments to historical figures as attempts to destroy the US.

Trump claimed without evidence that 99 percent of the coronavirus cases in the US were “totally harmless”. In fact, many US states marked a record number of new COVID-19 cases in recent days. In Texas alone, 7,890 patients were hospitalised after 238 new admissions over the past 24 hours.

According to reports on Saturday, the states of Texas and Florida alone accounted for almost 20,000 new cases of infections in one just one day.

While criticism mounted over the president’s handling of the pandemic, Trump said China must be “held accountable” for failing to contain the disease.

Peaceful protesters called for racial equality just steps from where Trump spoke in the capital, Washington, DC, marching down blocked-off streets around the White House, Black Lives Matter Plaza and the Lincoln Memorial.

Trump blasts ‘left-wing cultural revolution’ at Mount Rushmore

Millions of Americans have been demonstrating against police brutality and racial inequality since the May killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

In addition to achieving police reforms in some cities, some protesters have removed Confederate statues and other symbols of America’s legacy of slavery.

“There have always been those who seek to lie about the past in order to gain power in the present, those that are lying about our history, those who want us to be ashamed of who we are,” Trump said on Saturday. “Their goal is demolition.”

Biden: Trump ‘dismantling democracy’

Trump’s Fourth of July remarks doubled down on a Friday night speech at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota where he accused “angry mobs” of trying to erase history and used the speech to paint himself as a bulwark against left-wing extremism.

Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic rival in the November election, wrote a Fourth of July op-ed piece that struck a contrasting note with the Republican president and accused him of finding every day “new ways to tarnish and dismantle our democracy”.

In a separate letter to donors, Biden said: “We have a chance now to give the marginalised, the demonised, the isolated, the oppressed, a full share of the American dream.”

Juneteenth: Millions of Americans celebrate end of slavery

Biden also launched a new campaign commercial attacking Trump, posting on social media, “If you put the wrong person in office, you’ll see things that you would not have believed are possible.”

Trump, in his Saturday speech, also said the US would have a vaccine or therapeutic solution to the virus “long before” the end of 2020.

On Thursday, a top US health official said he was optimistic the Trump administration’s vaccine-acceleration programme “Operation Warp Speed” will generate a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19 by year-end.

Air show, fireworks

Saturday’s speech at the White House was capped off by fighter jet air shows and a fireworks display over the National Mall.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser had tried to dissuade the Trump administration from holding the event because it went against health officials’ guidance during the pandemic.

US: Breonna Taylor’s mother calls for police reforms

Apart from fireworks spectators, activists of different stripes also appeared willing to disregard the health warnings.

Roar of the Deplorables, a bikers group, said via social media that they planned to gather in Washington on Saturday to stand in protest against what they call “the anti-Trump regime” and to celebrate the nation’s birthday.

Freedom Fighters DC, a new activist group that seeks to rally an ethnically diverse generation of supporters behind liberty for all people, especially the Black population of Washington, is one of the anti-racism groups ignoring the mayor’s heed to refrain from gathering.

“Black folks are not free from the chains of oppression, so we don’t get to truly celebrate Independence Day,” said Kerrigan Williams, 22, one of the founders of the group, which will host a march and an arts demonstration on Saturday afternoon.

“We’re marching today to showcase that Black folks are still fighting for the simple liberties that the constitution is said to provide.”

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Critics Mock Trump For Choking On ‘Totalitarianism’ In Mount Rushmore Diatribe

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Critics Mock Trump For Choking On ‘Totalitarianism’ In Mount Rushmore Diatribe

Of all the words President Donald Trump could have flubbed in his harangue railing against “far-left fascism” at Mount Rushmore, “totalitarianism” was the perfect stumble, critics jabbed on Twitter Saturday.

Trump, as he does when he’s muddled about pronunciation, seemed to fade out mid-word in his speech Friday evening, but appeared to say something like “toe-tally-tario-tism.” (He also mispronounced “Ulysses S. Grant”  as “Ulysse-us.”) 

Trump slashed anti-racism protests across the nation, characterizing activists as a “violent” mob ― an inaccurate characterization of the mostly peaceful demonstrations ― and vowing to take action against them, In the process he echoed words used by totalitarian regimes against protesters, making it all-the-more rich that he mispronounced totalitarianism.

The Lincoln Project, created by never-Trump Republicans who have emerged as among his wittiest and sharp-edged critics, played a clip of the president mangling the word  — then followed up with a photo of him saluting a military official of North Korea.

Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, also noted the word stumble. Even more troubling, he emphasized, is that “Trump has no idea what words like fascism and totalitarianism mean.”

He called Trump’s address “perhaps the most un-American speech ever delivered by an American president & on the July 4th weekend no less.” McFaul said his “only solace” is that the “degree of craziness” of the speech is “probably best explained by Trump’s current level of desperation.”

It was off to the races for the rest of critics on Twitter. 

Some also took note that Trump — who is fond of dictating what people do during the national anthem — should not have saluted because he is not a military veteran. He obtained five draft deferments, including one for bone spurs, during the Vietnam War. Members of the military and veterans salute; the proper etiquette for civilians is to hold their right hand over their heart during the anthem.

For something completely different, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, issued his own message for July Fourth, urging everyone to “fight every day to make sure” that the American Dream is “as true for a Black child born in Minneapolis as it was for a white bodybuilder born in Austria.”

It was retweeted by The Lincoln Project.



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