A parade on horseback organized by supporters of Donald Trump was held on Friday at Keystone, in South Dakota, a few hours before the president’s arrival.
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July 3, 2020 15h29
Updated at 18h24
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The case of COVID-19 rise, Trump flew to Mount Rushmore
Jerome Advocacy
Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON — Under fire for his silence on the alarming figures of the COVID-19 in the United States, Donald Trump goes Friday at mount Rushmore for an evening of fireworks that he hoped to be a moment of unity in a country that it is difficult to gather.
On the eve of the national holiday of July 4, the republican president will speak under the eyes of four of its distant predecessors — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln — whose monumental heads were carved into the granite under the imposing memorial.
The billionaire republican, who is leaving his vice-president Mike Pence in the first line facing the spectacular rebound of the epidemic that blights the summer of Us, does not hide his enthusiasm for this event which is about 7,500 people are expected to attend.
“This is going to be an extraordinary evening, with fireworks as a few people have seen”, he predicted on Thursday. “This is going to be beautiful!”
In the midst of a debate on the symbols of the History of the country, and so that statues of confederate generals have been brought to earth by demonstrators, anti-racist, the president is going to say Friday evening “the truth about the History of America and those who try to shave and to divide our country”, said an official of his campaign.
“The pack of the left-wing […] behaviour is totalitarian, which is completely alien to american life, and we must not accept it,” he added.
This holiday weekend, let’s be safe and smart. It’s going to take all of us to beat this virus. So wear a mask. Wash your hands. And listen to the experts, not the folks trying to divide us. That’s the only way we’ll do this—together.https://t. co/UwNKAzL8JU
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 3, 2020
Mask or no mask?
Donald Trump will discuss there also the re-emergence of cases of COVID-19 in the south and the west, which “puts the country in danger,” according to Anthony Fauci, director of the american Institute of infectious diseases? Will there be finally a mask in public to set an example as the claim number of elected officials and personalities, including in his own camp?
In a very bad position in the polls to four months of the presidential election, which he holds for the time of a single message: the crisis of the coronavirus is “managed” the u.s. economy leaves “harder and faster” than expected and the year 2021 will be “historic”.
However, in a sharp contrast with Europe, records of contamination are beaten on a daily basis in the United States.
Number of States have implemented the déconfinement on break, or even backtracked, closing at the forward bars and beaches. The republican governor of Texas has announced that wearing a mask would now be mandatory in public places.
At the beginning of this long holiday weekend, former democrat president Barack Obama, himself, called a startle. “Defeating the virus will require the mobilization of all. Wear a mask. Wash your hands,” he tweeted. “And listen to the experts, not those who try to divide us”.
“No social distancing”
The tenant of the White House can expect a warm welcome in South Dakota, a State with very few people that he won it in 2016 with more than 60 % of the vote.
And the governor-republican Kristi Noem does not intend to spoil the party.
“We have said to those who are worried that they can stay at home,” she explained on Fox News. “For those who want to join us, we will distribute masks free of charge, if they decide to wear one. But there will be no social distancing”.
It will be the first fireworks on this site for over a decade. They had been halted in 2010 due to fear of forest fires.
Representatives of the tribes, the Sioux have announced demonstrations to protest against the organisation of the event in the mountains of the Black Hills — where the heads were carved from 1927 to 1941 — that they consider sacred.
Donald Trump speaks to him for a long time the fascination of mount Rushmore. In 2017, it was even mentioned, jokingly, the possibility that his face is added a day. Beyond any political considerations, however, it is unlikely that this happens.
“From time to time, individuals or organizations that propose to add new busts […] but this is not possible”, explains to the AFP Dana Soehn, spokesperson for the national Park.
“The rock that is located around of the faces [of the presidents] does not allow the sculpture” additional, ” she says, recalling that the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum wanted to represent the ideals of the first 150 years of american history — birth, growth, development, preservation — and that his work is therefore completed.
.@realDonaldTrump”s legacy is his countless failures, and the damage he’s done to America and its people.
Our Founding Fathers look down at him with disdain. pic.twitter.com/bxRGI90bgF
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) July 2, 2020
