KEYSTONE, S.D. -- With Mount Rushmore as a backdrop, President Donald Trump in a Friday night speech said that activists who want to remove Confederate monuments and other statues are conducting "a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children."
"This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore," Trump said.
The monument depicts the faces of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
"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," Trump said.
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The president alleged that protesters who have called for the removal of statues "seek to dissolve the bonds of love and loyalty that we feel for our country, and for each other."
Hours before the event, protesters blocked a road leading to the monument. Authorities worked to move the demonstrators, mostly American Indians protesting that South Dakota's Black Hills were taken from the Lakota people against treaty agreements. About 15 protesters were arrested after missing a police-imposed deadline to leave.
One group parked three vans across the road and took the tires from two of them to make it more difficult to remove them. Several demonstrators climbed on top of the vans and chanted, "Land back!" Police and National Guard members moved in and a standoff ensued, with police using pepper spray on several protesters. Tow trucks then began removing the vans from the road.
Trump's holiday-weekend address to mark the nation's independence follows weeks of protests across the nation, sparked by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May. Some demonstrators have also destroyed or damaged Confederate monuments and statues.
The president has spoken against rioters' actions in Washington, D.C., and other cities.
“In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance,” Trump told the Mount Rushmore crowd. “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. It’s not going to happen to us.
“Make no mistake: this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution. 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.”
The president presided over a fireworks display at the event, which drew thousands of people even as coronavirus cases spike across the country.
The fireworks display was the first in more than a decade at the mountain. Friday's show also featured a military flyover.
The state Republican Party sold T-shirts that feature Trump on the memorial.
MASKS OPTIONAL
Republican Gov. Kristi Noem said social distancing wouldn't be required during the event and that masks were optional. Event organizers were to provide masks to anyone who wanted them and planned to screen attendees for symptoms of covid-19.
Noem and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., were among the crowd meeting the president and first lady Melania Trump at Ellsworth Air Force Base. Noem wasn't wearing a mask; Thune removed his face covering as he waited to greet the president.
Noem told Fox News that the state encouraged attendees to "focus on personal responsibility."
"We told those folks that have concerns that they can stay home, but those who want to come and join us, we'll be giving out free face masks, if they choose to wear one," Noem said earlier this week. "But we will not be social distancing."
Noem, in remarks before Trump's speech, echoed his criticism against those who "are trying to wipe away the lessons of history."
"Make no mistake: This is being done deliberately to discredit America's founding principles by discrediting the individuals who formed them," she said.
The Republican mayor of the largest city near the monument, Rapid City, S.D., said he would be watching for an increase in cases after the event, the Rapid City Journal reported.
Enthusiastic attendees were unlikely to disqualify themselves "because they developed a cough the day of or the day before," Mayor Steve Allender said.
The small town of Keystone, S.D., which lies a couple of miles from the monument, was buzzing Friday, with people hoping to catch a glimpse of the fireworks and the president. Many wore pro-Trump T-shirts and hats. Few wore masks.
"This is going to rank up in the top Fourth of Julys that I talk about," said Mike Stewhr, who arrived with his family from Nebraska.
Mike Harris of Rapid City, who said he was a Republican, wore a mask and waved an anti-Trump flag. He also was sporting a handgun on each hip. He said he was worried the event would spark a covid-19 outbreak.
"I think it's a bad example being set by our president and our governor," Harris said.
Trump, who has faced criticism from lawmakers in both parties for his refusal to wear a mask in public and for his reluctance to encourage Americans to do so, maintains that the surge of new cases is a result of increased testing capacity and that the virus will soon "disappear."
"There is a rise in Coronavirus cases because our testing is so massive and so good, far bigger and better than any other country," Trump tweeted late Thursday. "This is great news, but even better news is that death, and the death rate, is DOWN. Also, younger people, who get better much easier and faster!"
RISKS DEBATED
At Mount Rushmore on Friday, the president offered thanks to "the doctors, nurses and scientists working tirelessly to kill the virus."
Robin Pladsen, director of the Keystone Chamber of Commerce, handed out masks and hand sanitizer from a tent. She said the tourist influx would help businesses pay back loans they had taken out to survive the economic downtown, but she acknowledged the health risk for the town.
Leaders of several American Indian tribes in the region also raised concerns that the event could lead to virus outbreaks among their members, who they say are particularly vulnerable because of an underfunded health care system and chronic health conditions.
"The president is putting our tribal members at risk to stage a photo op at one of our most sacred sites," said Harold Frazier, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.
White House aide Kellyanne Conway defended the event, saying that the state's infection rate is relatively low, its hospital capacity is high and the Rushmore site is "open air." As of Thursday, the state had fewer than 100 coronavirus-related deaths during the pandemic, and fewer than 1,000 known active cases.
"You're outside; it's very big and airy," Conway told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. She encouraged attendees to wear face coverings at the event. She said that precaution wasn't necessary for the president, who she said is tested daily for the coronavirus and thus unlikely to spread the disease.
"It's important for people who can't be practicing social distancing to be wearing masks," she said.
Meanwhile, Kimberly Guilfoyle, a Trump campaign fundraiser who is dating Donald Trump Jr., tested positive for covid-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, ahead of the president's speech.
Guilfoyle had not arrived at the event and was not in contact with the president, and Trump Jr. tested negative, said a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss their personal situation. Guilfoyle and Trump Jr. were not seen in television footage of the president joined by aides, his son Eric and his daughter Tiffany.
Guilfoyle and Trump Jr. are planning to drive back to Washington to avoid contact with others, the person said.
The New York Times first reported Guilfoyle's positive test Friday evening.
PROTEST AGAINST MEMORIAL
Some American Indian groups used Trump's visit to protest the Mount Rushmore memorial itself, pointing out that the Black Hills were taken from the Lakota people.
More than 100 protesters, many Lakota, lined the road leading from Keystone to the monument holding signs and playing Lakota music in 95-degree heat. Some held their fists in the air as cars loaded with event attendees passed by. Others held signs that read "Protect SoDak's First People," "You Are On Stolen Land" and "Dismantle White Supremacy."
"The president needs to open his eyes. We're people, too, and it was our land first," said Hehakaho Waste, a spiritual elder with the Oglala Sioux tribe.
Several people who once oversaw fire danger at the national memorial have said setting off fireworks over the forest was a bad idea that could lead to a large wildfire. Fireworks were called off after 2009 because a mountain pine beetle infestation increased the fire risks.
Noem pushed to get the fireworks resumed soon after she was elected, and she enlisted Trump's help. The president brushed aside fire concerns earlier this year, saying: "What can burn? It's stone."
"They used to do it many years ago, and for some reason they were unable or unallowed to do it," he said Thursday. "They just weren't allowed to do it, and I opened it up, and we're going to have a tremendous July 3 and then we're coming back here, celebrating the Fourth of July in Washington, D.C."
Trump has presided over a several large-crowd events -- in Tulsa and at an Arizona megachurch -- even as health officials warn against large gatherings and recommend masks and social distancing. He plans a July Fourth celebration on the National Mall in Washington despite health concerns from the city's mayor. The president and first lady plan to host events from the White House South Lawn and from the Ellipse.
Some activists have called for removing the Rushmore monument, noting that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were slave owners, as well as the execution of dozens of American Indian combatants in the Dakota War during Lincoln's presidency. Trump said this week that he would block any such effort.
"Somebody said they want to see that come down. That's never coming down," the president said Wednesday in an interview with Sinclair television. He repeated it during his speech Friday night.
Ahead of Trump's visit to the monument, the Mississippi flag was removed from an area of the site where the flags of all U.S. states and territories fly. The state's Legislature voted this week to remove the Confederate symbol from its flag, and thus the Mississippi flagpole will be empty.
CORRECTION: President Donald Trump, in his Friday speech at Mount Rushmore, said, “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,” and “One of their political weapons is 'cancel culture' — driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees. This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and our values, and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America.” An earlier version of this article misquoted the president based on a pre-event copy of the speech obtained by The Washington Post.
Information for this article was contributed by Stephen Groves, Darlene Superville, Jill Colvin and Todd Richmond of The Associated Press; by Justin Sink of Bloomberg News; and by Colby Itkowitz of The Washington Post.
