President Trump on Saturday gave an optimistic Independence Day message to the nation, declaring that the U.S. is “coming back” and will be “greater than ever before” after it emerges from the coronavirus pandemic -- which he described as a “terrible plague from China.”
“I just want to wish everybody a really Happy Fourth of July,” he said in a video message. "We’re on the way to a tremendous victory, it’s going to happen and it’s going to happen big, our country will be greater than ever before.”
Trump began the short message by saying that July 4 is about many different things, “but more than anything else -- freedom.”
He focused on the U.S. economy, and touted its gains in the stock market and unemployment rate before the pandemic hit in March.
“We were doing better than any country had ever done in history and not just us, any country, and then we got hit with this terrible plague from China and now we’re getting close to fighting our way out of it,” he said.
“Our country’s coming back, our jobs numbers are spectacular, a lot of things are happening that people don’t quite see yet but you’ll see over the next couple of months,” he said.
It comes the morning after he gave a broader speech at Mount Rushmore, in which he targeted a rise in what he called “left-wing fascism” and called for a defense of "Judeo-Christian principles."
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"We will state the truth in full, without apology: We declare that the United States of America is the most just and exceptional nation ever to exist on Earth," Trump said. "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."
Fox News’ Gregg Re contributed to this report.
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