Most people celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks, barbecues, parades, and red, white, and blue attire. Then there’s Donald Trump, who could be president of the United States in approximately 6.5 months. He took a different tack this week, choosing to commemorate the United States’ independence from Britain by attacking his rival for office, belittling the accomplishments of the first female vice president, and trashing the justice system.
Taking to Truth Social, the social media network he founded after being kicked off of Twitter for inciting an insurrection, Trump ranted his followers:
Trump, of course, is attacking Biden over the president’s debate performance using his favorite line re: people performing “like a dog,” an insult he has used many times over the years. On Harris, he appears to be referring to a favorite smear of the right concerning a relationship the VP was in decades ago. As for the claim that Biden has directed prosecutors to go after Trump, well, you’ve probably heard that one before.
Social media isn’t the only forum in which the ex-president has lashed out at his competitors of late. In footage obtained by The Daily Beast, taken at some point following last week’s debate, Trump, sitting in a golf cart, says of Biden: “He just quit, you know—he’s quitting the race. I got him out of the—and that means we have Kamala.” (At present, Biden has not dropped out of the race.) Later, appearing to refer to Biden, he says, “Look at that old, broken-down pile of crap,” and of Harris, “She’s so bad. She’s so pathetic.” (A CNN poll released days after the presidential debate show moderates and independents prefer Harris to Trump.)
Trump’s bizarre way of ringing in the Fourth of July isn’t actually that bizarre for him. In 2013, he famously commemorated 9/11 by tweeting: “I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.” On December 31, 2016, he wrote: “Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do.” And on Memorial Day 2023, his rambling holiday message closed with, “We must stop the communists, Marxists and fascist ‘pigs’ at every turn and, Make America Great Again!”