Trump's Mount Rushmore speech came on too late for me, but...

... I've got the transcript, and I'm going to live-blog my reading of it. I'm fixing punctuation as I go and adding boldface:

There could be no better place to celebrate America’s independence than beneath this magnificent, incredible, majestic mountain and monument to the greatest Americans who have ever lived.

Somebody went heavy on the alliteration, but "incredible" sneaked in there. He's on the side of the monuments, not the destroyers of monuments.

The superlative — "the greatest Americans who have ever lived" — is a provocation. Not only is he defending these 4 men against the recent attacks, he's saying they are greater than every other American in history — greater than Frederick Douglass, greater than Harriet Tubman, greater than all of them. He didn't have to say the greatest. He could have said "among the greatest."

It would mean something just to call them "great" at all and not to qualify it with something like, though they did not escape the moral failings characteristic of their time. But he went big. He put the 4 above everyone else, which is the message of the mountain.

Today we pay tribute to the exceptional lives and extraordinary legacies of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt.

He's got the great men on his side, not like those people who want to tear down statues of all of them.

I am here as your president to proclaim before the country and before the world, this monument will never be desecrated, these heroes will never be defamed, their legacy will never ever be destroyed, their achievements will never be forgotten, and Mount Rushmore will stand forever as an eternal tribute to our forefathers and to our freedom.

That's big! Very grand. Very much a stand against the protesters and rioters... without mentioning them.  This is hyperbole, because Trump cannot protect the monument forever, and indeed, an understanding of geology would tell you that it's impossible for the monument to stand forever as an eternal tribute.

But he's not promising. He's proclaiming. I think of the proclamation on the plinth of Ozymandias. You can proclaim it is eternal, but that doesn't make it eternal. I'm going to live forever! I'm going to learn how to fly! Sing it joyously, but you're still going to die some day.

It's rhetoric. I'm not saying it's bad. It's in the style of Churchill — "never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in" — and it's understood emotionally, not literally.

We gather tonight to herald the most important day in the history of nations, July 4th, 1776. At those words, every American heart should swell with pride, every American family should cheer with delight, and every American patriot should be filled with joy because each of you lives in the most magnificent country in the history of the world and it will soon be greater than ever before.

He's telling us how we should feel: good, very, very good. Obviously, there are a lot of people who feel very bad about America. But they should feel good. He's not acknowledging all their arguments and complaints. It's as if those people are just not understanding what is true: America is great.

Our founders launched not only a revolution in government, but a revolution in the pursuit of justice, equality, liberty, and prosperity. No nation has done more to advance the human condition than the United States of America and no people have done more to promote human progress than the citizens of our great nation.

The argument for greatness is not that we are perfect, but look how far we've come.

It was all made possible by the courage of 56 patriots who gathered in Philadelphia 244 years ago and signed the Declaration of Independence. They enshrined a divine truth that changed the world forever when they said, “All men are created equal.” These immortal words set in motion the unstoppable march of freedom. Our founders boldly declared that we are all endowed with the same divine rights, given us by our Creator in Heaven, and that which God has given us, we will allow no one ever to take away — ever.

There's "ever" again — and in connection with God and "divine truth." This is a very lofty paragraph. And, again, the idea isn't that we're complacent about existing greatness. It's a process: America "will soon be greater than ever before," there's been so much "progress," it's a march forward that was "set in motion" and is "unstoppable."

1776 represented the culmination of thousands of years of Western civilization and the triumph of not only spirit, but of wisdom, philosophy, and reason.

To some, the term "Western civilization" is a provocation. To some, the "triumph of... wisdom, philosophy, and reason" sounds like patriarchy and racism.

And yet, as we meet here tonight, there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for, struggled, they bled to secure. Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children. Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities.

He's combining the protesters and the critics of American values with the worst of the rioters. They're one big ugly glob, and they don't simply want to assist in this process of perfecting America, going on the "unstoppable march of freedom." They only want to destroy — to "wipe out" and "erase."

It's easy to lump these people together. I remember when some Americans who wanted to defend monuments showed up in Charlottesville at the same time as some very conspicuous Nazis, and Trump called the non-Nazi subsection of the pro-monument protesters "very fine people." Anti-Trumpists typically lump them all together and insist on saying that Trump called Nazis "very fine people." Trump is returning the favor.

Many of these people have no idea why they’re doing this, but some know what they are doing.

So Trump does discern a subsection of the mob. The ones who know what they are doing.

They think the American people are weak and soft and submissive, but no, the American people are strong and proud and they will not allow our country and all of its values, history, and culture to be taken from them.

This is a call to the silent majority. We are peaceful and hard to see, but we are vigilant, and we do care.

One of their political weapons is cancel culture, driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees.

This goes beyond the protest and riots, to a much larger phenomenon. He's saying it's important and must be fought off:

This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and to our values and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America.

That sentence is huge — "totalitarianism."

This attack on our liberty, our magnificent liberty must be stopped and it will be stopped very quickly. We will expose this dangerous movement, protect our nation’s children from this radical assault, and preserve our beloved American way of life. In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance.

There is a "dangerous movement" — "far-left fascism."

If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished.

Something terrifying is rising up in America. Those on the far left think it is Trump and his fascists. But Trump is saying, no, you're the fascists. He is a counterpuncher. And he is using the evidence of the cancel culture.

It’s not going to happen to us. Make no mistake. This left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution.

We return to the Fourth of July theme. Trump's side embodies the values of the revolution. The other side is opposed to those values and threatening to take them away.

In so doing they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence, and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress. To make this possible, they are determined to tear down every statue, symbol, and memory of our national heritage.

He returns to the monuments. And he's right there, under the looming mountain of heads.  I'm just reading text, so I don't know how it looked and sounded. I will watch, but I want to get through this live blog first. I'm giving you my impression of the text alone, and I will let you know whether the audio and video give a different effect.

Here's Mount Rushmore and he's talking about mobs that are tearing down monuments. And it's not just statues they want to tear down. They are determined to tear down our symbols and memories. Can you tear down memories? Oh, yes. Memories are easy to tear down. People are always forgetting, and when they are not forgetting, they are remembering in new ways, reshaping and reassembling what's in their head. And new generations flow into the population. Old generations die off. What's in the history books changes. America is a beautiful story or a horrible story. The beautiful story — that memory — can be torn down and replaced by the ugly story. There's an intense effort to tear down the "memory of our national heritage."

Trump is betting that the majority of Americans want to preserve the positive American history — the one that makes us "swell with pride" and be "filled with joy" on the Fourth of July.

The transcript indicates that another speaker says, "Not on my watch," and Trump responds:

True. That’s very true actually. That is why I am deploying federal law enforcement to protect our monuments, arrest the rioters, and prosecutors offenders to the fullest extent of the law.

I'm guessing this refers only to Washington D.C. or Washington D.C. and the places where mayors or governors have requested help from the federal government. I don't think this is a major new policy announcement.

Someone in the crowd, perhaps more than one person says: "Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!" A campaign chant. But this isn't a campaign rally. Trump needs to keep the campaign aspect of this speech subtle. He continues:

I am pleased to report that yesterday, federal agents arrested the suspected ringleader of the attack on the statue of the great Andrew Jackson in Washington, D.C., and in addition, hundreds more have been arrested. Under the executive order I signed last week pertaining to the Veterans Memorial Preservation Memorial and Recognition Act and other laws, people who damage or deface federal statues or monuments will get a minimum of 10 years in prison and obviously that includes our beautiful Mount Rushmore.

So he's protecting Washington D.C. and other federal monuments — in South Dakota and elsewhere.

Our people have a great memory. They will never forget the destruction of statues and monuments to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, abolitionists and many others.

If we will never forget, why was he worrying us about the left-wingers who want to tear down our memories of our great American heritage? Now he's saying what we'll never forget is the destruction being visited upon our statues.

The violent mayhem we have seen in the streets and cities that are run by liberal Democrats in every case is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education, journalism, and other cultural institutions. Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes but that were villains.

This is a painful accusation, but I'm afraid it is true.

The radical view of American history is a web of lies, all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition. This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore. They defiled the memory of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt.

This is painfully true — if a bit exaggerated (every fact, every flaw... beyond all recognition).

Today we will set history and history’s record straight. Before these figures were immortalized in stone, they were American giants in full flesh and blood, gallant men, whose intrepid deeds unleashed the greatest leap of human advancement the world has ever known.

That's pleasantly macho. Or unpleasantly... depending on your bent. Leaping, gallant, full flesh-and-blood men. He's trying to stir you up, make you swell with pride, picturing the 4 manly Presidents. I'm seeing them in my mind on horses and then wondering if Lincoln had a horse. Lincoln had Old Bob:

That's "Old Bob caparisoned in a mourning blanket at Abraham Lincoln's funeral” (with Rev. Henry Brown).

Trump proceeds to tell the story of each of the 4 men:

Tonight I will tell you and most importantly the youth of our nation the true stories of these great, great men.

Listen, my children....

From head to toe George Washington represented the strength, grace, and dignity of the American people. From a small volunteer force of citizen farmers, he created the Continental Army out of nothing and rallied them to stand against the most powerful military on earth. Through eight long years, through the brutal winter at Valley Forge, through setback after setback on the field of battle, he led those patriots to ultimate triumph. When the army had dwindled to a few thousand men at Christmas of 1776, when defeat seemed absolutely certain, he took what remained of his forces on a daring nighttime crossing of the Delaware River. They marched through nine miles of frigid darkness, many without boots on their feet, leaving a trail of blood in the snow. In the morning, they seized victory at Trenton after forcing the surrender of the most powerful empire on the planet at Yorktown, General Washington did not claim power but simply returned to Mount Vernon as a private citizen. When called upon again, he presided over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and was unanimously elected our first president. When he stepped down after two terms, his former adversary, King George called him the greatest man of the age. He remains first in our hearts to this day, for as long as Americans love this land, we will honor and cherish the father of our country, George Washington. He will never be removed, abolished, and most of all, he will never be forgotten.

We anticipate a similar vivid history story for the next President:

Thomas Jefferson, the great Thomas Jefferson, was 33 years old when he traveled north to Pennsylvania and brilliantly authored one of the greatest treasures of human history, the Declaration of Independence. He also drafted Virginia’s constitution and conceived and wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, a model for our cherished First Amendment. After serving as the first Secretary of State, and then Vice President, he was elected to the presidency. He ordered American warriors to crush Barbary pirates. He doubled the size of our nation with the Louisiana Purchase and he sent the famous explorers Lewis and Clark into the west on a daring expedition to the Pacific Ocean. He was an architect, an inventor, a diplomat, a scholar, the founder of one of the world’s great universities and an ardent defender of liberty. Americans will forever admire the author of American freedom, Thomas Jefferson, and he too will never, ever be abandoned by us.

Never ever.

Abraham Lincoln, the savior of our union, was a self-taught country lawyer who grew up in a log cabin on the American frontier. The first Republican president, he rose to high office from obscurity based on a force and clarity of his anti-slavery convictions. Very, very strong convictions. He signed the law that built the Trans-Continental Railroad. He signed the Homestead Act given to some incredible scholars [sic] as simply defined ordinary citizens free land to settle anywhere in the American West, and he led the country through the darkest hours of American history, giving every ounce of strength that he had to ensure that government of the people, by the people and for the people did not perish from this earth. He served as commander in chief of the U.S. Armed Forces during our bloodiest war, the struggle that saved our union and extinguished the evil of slavery. Over 600,000 died in that war, more than 20, 000 were killed or wounded in a single day in Antietam. At Gettysburg 157 years ago, the Union bravely withstood an assault of nearly 15,000 men and threw back Pickett’s Charge. Lincoln won the Civil War. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation. He led the passage of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery for all-time and ultimately his determination to preserve our nation and our union cost him his life. For as long as we live, Americans will uphold and revere the immortal memory of President Abraham Lincoln.

Lofty. Eternal.

Theodore Roosevelt exemplified the unbridled confidence of our national culture and identity. He saw the towering grandeur of America’s mission in the world and he pursued it with overwhelming energy and zeal. As a Lieutenant Colonel during the Spanish-American War, he led the famous Rough Riders to defeat the enemy at San Juan Hill. He cleaned up corruption as police commissioner of New York City, then served as the Governor of New York, Vice President, and at 42 years old, became the youngest ever President of the United States. He sent our great new naval fleet around the globe to announce America’s arrival as a world power. He gave us many of our national parks, including the Grand Canyon. He oversaw the construction of the awe-inspiring Panama Canal and he is the only person ever awarded both the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was American freedom personified in full. The American people will never relinquish the bold, beautiful and untamed spirit of Theodore Roosevelt.

Bold, beautiful and untamed...

Storytime is now over. That was the beautiful story of the past. Now, Trump attacks the antagonists of the present:

No movement that seeks to dismantle these treasured American legacies can possibly have a love of America at its heart. Can’t happen. No person who remains quiet at the destruction of this resplendent heritage can possibly lead us to a better future.

The majority may be silent but the leader — AKA Trump — cannot be silent.

The radical ideology attacking our country advances under the banner of social justice, but in truth, it would demolish both justice and society.

He reclaims "justice" and "social" for the right wing.

It would transform justice into an instrument of division and vengeance and it would turn our free and inclusive society into a place of a repression, domination, and exclusion. They want to silence us, but we will not be silenced. We will state the truth in full without apology.

Next comes a recitation of the right-wing creed:

We declare that the United States of America is the most just and exceptional nation ever to exist on earth. We are proud of the fact that our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and we understand that these values have dramatically advanced the cause of peace and justice throughout the world. We know that the American family is the bedrock of American life. We recognize the solemn right and moral duty of every nation to secure its borders and we are building the wall. We remember that governments exist to protect the safety and happiness of their own people. A nation must care for its own citizens first. We must take care of America first. It’s time. We believe in equal opportunity, equal justice, and equal treatment for citizens of every race, background, religion and creed. Every child of every color, born and unborn, is made in the holy image of God. We want free and open debate, not speech codes and cancel culture. We embrace tolerance, not prejudice. We support the courageous men and women of law enforcement. We will never abolish our police or our great Second Amendment which gives us the right to keep and bear arms. We believe that our children should be taught to love their country, honor their history, and respect our great American flag. We stand tall, we stand proud, and we only kneel to Almighty God. This is who we are. This is what we believe and these are the values that will guide us as we strive to build an even better and greater future.

On the other side are "Those who seek to erase our heritage":

Those who seek to erase our heritage want Americans to forget our pride and our great dignity so that we can no longer understand ourselves or America’s destiny. In toppling the heroes of 1776, they seek to dissolve the bonds of love and loyalty that we feel for our country and that we feel for each other. Their goal is not a better America, their goal is to end America.

A dramatic accusation. It must be answered. I will look to see the response to this speech. The left must insist that they love America and are loyal to it and that they seek a better America. Can they do that believably? Will some of them say, yes, we do seeks to end America — it's rotten to the core, unlovable, undeserving of loyalty, and the only way to make it better is to kill it off and start over. We are talking about a revolution. It's the Fourth of July.

In its place, they want power for themselves, but just as patriots did in centuries past, the American people will stand in their way and we will win and win quickly and with great dignity. We will never let them rip America’s heroes from our monuments or from our hearts. By tearing down Washington and Jefferson, these radicals would tear down the very heritage for which men gave their lives to win the Civil War, they would erase the memory that inspired those soldiers to go to their deaths, singing these words of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, “As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, while God is marching on.” They would tear down the principles that propelled the abolition of slavery and ultimately around the world ending an evil institution that had plagued humanity for thousands and thousands of years. Our opponents would tear apart the very documents that Martin Luther King used to express his dream and the ideas that were the foundation of the righteous movement for Civil Rights. They would tear down the beliefs, culture and identity, that have made America the most vibrant and tolerant society in the history of the earth. My fellow Americans, it is time to speak up loudly and strongly and powerfully and defend the integrity of our country.

The crowd chants "USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!"

Trump continues:

It is time for our politicians to summon the bravery and determination of our American ancestors. It is time. It is time to plant our flag and to protect the greatest of this nation for citizens of every race in every city in every part of this glorious land. For the sake of our honor, for the sake of our children, for the sake of our union, we must protect and preserve our history, our heritage, and our great heroes. Here tonight before the eyes of our forefathers, Americans declare again, as we did 244 years ago, that we will not be tyrannized, we will not be demeaned, and we will not be intimidated by bad, evil people. It will not happen.

The crowd chants: "USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!"

Trump continues:

We will proclaim the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and we will never surrender the spirit and the courage and the cause of July 4, 1776. Upon this ground, we will stand firm and unwavering. In the face of lies meant to divide us, demoralize us and diminish us, we will show that the story of America unites us and we will show that the story of America unites us, inspires us, includes us all, and makes everyone free. We must demand that our children are taught once again to see America as did Reverend Martin Luther King when he said that the founders had signed a promissory note to every future generation. Dr. King saw that the mission of justice required us to fully embrace our founding ideals. Those ideals are so important to us, the founding ideals. He called on his fellow citizens not to rip down their heritage, but to live up to their heritage. Above all, our children from every community must be taught that to be American is to inherit the spirit of the most adventurous and confident people ever to walk the face of the Earth. Americans are the people who pursued our Manifest Destiny across the ocean, into the uncharted wilderness, over the tallest mountains, and then into the skies, and even into the stars.

I said at the beginning of this live blog that his use of the phrase "the greatest Americans who have ever lived" to refer to the 4 Mount Rushmore Presidents was a provocation, because he's putting them above "every other American in history — greater than Frederick Douglass, greater than Harriet Tubman." But now he lists some great Americans and I see the 2 names I came up with are on his list:

We are the country of Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Frederick Douglass. We are the land of Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody. We are the nation that gave rise to the Wright brothers, the Tuskegee airmen, Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton, Jesse Owens, George Patton, General George Patton, the great Louis Armstrong, Alan Shepard, Elvis Presley, and Muhammad Ali, and only America could have produced them all. No other place.

He focuses on his area of expertise, building:

We are the culture that put up the Hoover Dam, laid down the highways, and sculpted the skyline of Manhattan. We are the people who dreamed the spectacular dream, it was called Las Vegas in the Nevada desert, who built up Miami from the Florida marsh, and who carved our heroes into the face of Mount Rushmore.

He speaks of technology and territorial reach:

Americans harnessed electricity, split the atom, and gave the world the telephone and the internet. We settled the Wild West, won two World Wars, landed American astronauts on the moon. And one day very soon, we will plant our flag on Mars.

He speaks of art:

We gave the world the poetry of Walt Whitman, the stories of Mark Twain, the songs of Irving Berlin, the voice of Ella Fitzgerald, the style of Frank Sinatra, the comedy of Bob Hope...

And in the middle of what I thought was the art sentence, he returns to technology:

... the power of the Saturn V rocket, the toughness of the Ford F150, and the awesome might of the American aircraft carriers.

And with that aircraft carrier positioned, he's coming in for a landing:

Americans must never lose sight of this miraculous story. We should never lose sight of it. Nobody has ever done it like we have done it.

Oh! It's a big proposal...

So today, under the authority vested in me as President of the United States, I am announcing the creation of a new monument to the giants of our past. I am signing an executive order to establish the National Guard of American heroes, a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live.

Oh... we'll have to fight over that. Do you want "a vast outdoor park" of statues of great Americans? I suspect he's proposing it to force other politicians to take a position on it and to look bad when they say that's not what we need. The elite are not going to want to spend tax money on a bunch of old-fashioned statues. Or are we going to re-home the rejected statues of America — something like Grūtas Park in Lithuania?

From this night, and from this magnificent place, let us go forward united in our purpose and rededicated in our resolve. We will raise the next generation of American patriots. We will write the next thrilling chapter of the American adventure. And we will teach our children to know that they live in a land of legends, that nothing can stop them, and that no one can hold them down. They will know that, in America, you can do anything, you can be anything, and together, we can achieve anything.

Yes, it is awful that so many American children today are being taught that an unseen hostile force is forever holding them back. It's not that the beautiful, optimistic story is completely true, but it is more helpful to believe... unless you think that's the con, that's how the systemic racism operates, by telling the kids that fairytale. I wouldn't go all in for either story. I think American freedom entails debate and a critical mind, but if I had to teach little children one or the other — and you do have to start simple — I would choose the beauty and the optimism.

Trump ends with the most exalted optimism:

Uplifted by the titans of Mount Rushmore, we will find unity that no one expected. We will make strides that no one thought possible. This country will be everything that our citizens have hoped for for so many years, and that our enemies fear, because we will never forget that the American freedom exists for American greatness. And that’s what we have, American greatness. Centuries from now, our legacy will be the cities we built, the champions we forged, the good that we did, and the monuments we created to inspire us all. My fellow citizens, America’s destiny is in our sights. America’s heroes are embedded in our hearts. America’s future is in our hands. And ladies and gentlemen, the best is yet to come. This has been a great honor for the First Lady and myself to be with you. I love your state. I love this country. I’d like to wish everybody a very happy Fourth of July to all. God bless you. God bless your families. God bless our great military, and God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you.