Trump Thinks He Belongs on Mount Rushmore

Summary

Bulwark Takes – "Trump Thinks He Belongs on Mount Rushmore"

Date: July 7, 2026
Host: Will Saletan (The Bulwark Team)
Main Focus: An examination of Donald Trump’s narcissism during America’s 250th birthday, spotlighting how his actions and rhetoric undermine genuine patriotism.

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Overview

In this incisive episode, Will Saletan dissects Donald Trump’s Independence Day weekend appearances and social media activity, illustrating how Trump reframes patriotic celebrations into personal tributes. Saletan uses Trump’s own words to map out a leader whose concept of patriotism is inseparable from self-aggrandizement, and he draws out the unsettling consequences for American democracy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s Self-Centered Approach to America’s 250th

• Trump’s Mount Rushmore Stunt:
  • Trump posted a Truth Social video depicting Mount Rushmore with his own face added in gold—“Trump trying to make America’s 250th birthday about him.” (01:15)
• Electoral Victories as Personal Validation:
  • Trump’s speeches fixate on states he’s “won,” transforming national milestones into personal achievement logs.
  • Example: Boasting about winning South Dakota at Mount Rushmore.
    • “When a normal president says we, he means we, the American people. But when Trump says we, he means me. I.” (02:25)
  • Regarding Pennsylvania:
    • “Never mind what Pennsylvania did in American history… The important thing about Pennsylvania is that it voted for Trump in 2024.” (02:50)

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2. Trump’s Obsession with Recognition

• Nobel Prize Side-Comment:
  • Trump jokes about not winning a Nobel Prize after reading about Americans who won it.
    • “Who cares about Americans winning the Nobel Prize? There’s only one American who really matters.” (03:51)
• Self-Aggrandizing Social Posts:
  • Before a 4th of July rally:
    • “There it is. It’s just those two words, I’m here, and then a bunch of exclamation points because again, everything... has to be about this guy.” (04:14)

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3. Trump’s Revisionist Patriotism

• Patriotism Tied to Personal Rule:
  • Trump claims that people respect and love America now because he is president.
    • Saletan’s analogy:
      • “He’s kind of like the guy who's dating your sister... and he tells you nobody respected her till she was dating him.” (05:15)
      • “He only loves himself. And that is the best way to understand how Trump thinks about America.”

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4. External Validation Over American Values

• Foreign Leaders as Validation:
  • Trump references the King of Saudi Arabia to prove people respect America now.
  • “This is the 250th anniversary of America’s birthday. We literally declared our independence from a king. And Trump is marking that day by bragging that his buddies, the kings of other countries, told him that America was dead.” (08:47)
• Israel Over American Interests:
  • Trump boasts about being “the best president for Israel,” concluding that “no Jewish person should vote for a Democrat.”
    • Saletan:
      • “He’s appealing to my allegiance to another country. And he’s telling me that if I don’t put that allegiance first, I’m irrational. That is a very, very strange idea of patriotism.” (09:42)

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5. Attack on “Woke” Narratives, But Not His Own Grievance Stories

• Trump rails against left-wing critiques of America’s past but pivots immediately to his own claims of victimhood.
  • “Let’s not hear any of that left-wing garbage about injustice in America, except... for the injustice that we know America committed against Donald Trump.” (11:26, 11:56)
  • On elections:
    • “It turns out that America is guilty of stealing... it stole what should have been his second term.” (13:02)

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6. Deflection and Projection: Accusations of Communism

• Trump frames contemporary threats as a “communist menace” supplied by immigrants and leftists.
• Saletan flips this claim:
  • “The threat to our democracy is people who have no respect for principle or tradition, and they just want control. And to get control, they think anything is justified. Who do we know who thinks that way? Let’s ask Donald Trump.” (14:55)

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7. Ends-Justify-the-Means Politics

• Trump advocates abolishing the filibuster and passing the “Save America Act” to ensure Republican dominance for a century.
  • Quotes Trump:
    • “If we terminate the filibuster... and immediately vote for the Save America act, then we will not lose an election for 100 years.” (15:18)
  • Saletan’s warning:
    • “I can think of some governments in world history that tried to stay in power for a hundred years... We called them communists.” (15:46)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Trump’s understanding of “we”:

  "When a normal president says we, he means we, the American people. But when Trump says we, he means me. I. I won South Dakota. He doesn't like South Dakota because it's part of America. He likes South Dakota because it voted for him." — Will Saletan (02:25)

• On patriotism as self-love:

  "He’s kind of like the guy who's dating your sister... and he tells you nobody respected her till she was dating him. So... the one thing you know about this guy... is that he doesn’t love her. Right? He only loves himself. And that is the best way to understand how Trump thinks about America." — Will Saletan (05:15)

• On foreign validation:

  "The King of Saudi Arabia told me, and I said this numerous times... president, a year and a half ago, America was dead." — Donald Trump, quoted by Saletan (08:34)

• On the Save America Act:

  "If we terminate the filibuster... and immediately vote for the Save America act, then we will not lose an election for 100 years." — Donald Trump (15:18)

• On what real patriotism demands:

  "We have to defend our democracy and our Constitution every day. We have to defend our freedoms and the rule of law every day. And we have to defend it even when the person who’s trying to destroy it, the person who’s trying to end the American republic, is the guy standing behind the seal of our country pretending to love America. See you next time." — Will Saletan (16:45)

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Important Timestamps

• 01:00 – Will Saletan introduces the theme: Trump’s incapacity for genuine patriotism
• 02:16 – Trump boasts about winning states, reframing historical relevance
• 03:35 – Trump’s Nobel Prize joke
• 04:44 – Boasts of revived military and police, tying America's fortunes to his presidency
• 06:20 – Analogy of America’s fortunes as personal validation
• 08:17-09:42 – Deference to foreign leaders and Israel, not American values
• 11:08-11:56 – Critique of “woke” narratives vs. his own victimhood
• 13:39 – Trump marks immigrants as the “communist menace”
• 15:18 – Advocacy for one-party rule
• 16:45 – Call to defend democracy against anti-democratic forces

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Conclusion

Will Saletan casts Donald Trump’s Fourth of July conduct as the antithesis of patriotism—narcissism masquerading as national pride. By tracing Trump’s incessant recentering of the country’s history and destiny on himself, and his blurring of American interests with personal vendettas and foreign validation, Saletan warns that democracy’s defense must be ongoing—even, or especially, from the office of the presidency itself.

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For listeners wanting a clear-eyed breakdown of Trump’s rhetoric on a historic national occasion, this episode blends sharp analysis with salient, biting commentary—making the stakes and distortions unmistakably clear.

Transcript

[Bretzky]

Hey, everybody.

[Lady Luck]

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[Will Saletan]

Hey, it's Will Salatan from the Bulwark. So this weekend, America celebrated its 250th birthday, and unfortunately, it happened under the worst president we've ever had. So I can't show you, from what our president said this weekend, what patriotism is, but I can show you what patriotism isn't. So that's what I'm going to do today. I'm going to show you the mental and moral pathologies that make Donald Trump incapable of patriotism. So let's start with the speech he gave on Friday. So this is the day before July 4th. He was speaking at Mount Rushmore, and right before the speech, he posted this video on Truth Social. It's a sculpture in gold depicting the four presidents who are on Mount Rushmore. Plus plus on the right, Donald Trump. So that's how the weekend started. Trump trying to make America's 250th birthday about him. And then he started his speech by bragging that he won South Dakota, the home of Mount Rushmore in the last election.

[Commercial Announcer]

And by the way, we won big here. We won really big. Each, each and every time we, he

[Will Saletan]

says we, we won big here. See, when a normal president says we, he means we, the American people. But when Trump says we, he means me. I. I won South Dakota. He doesn't like South Dakota because it's part of America. He likes South Dakota because it voted for him. In fact, he did the same thing on Truth Social. Here's what he posted a few days ago about Pennsylvania. He wrote, we are proud to celebrate America's 250th birthday in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where I won big in the presidential election. So never mind what Pennsylvania did in American history. You know, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitutional Convention. Now, the important thing about Pennsylvania is that it voted for Trump in 2024. So then Trump reads a line from his teleprompter about Americans who won the Nobel Prize, and he decides, he decides to ad lib a line about himself.

[Commercial Announcer]

Americans have won the most Olympic medals of any country in the world, by far the most Nobel Prizes. Well, they haven't given me 1. Settle 8 wars, I still haven't gotten it. That's okay.

[Will Saletan]

He didn't settle eight wars, by the way. But the point is, who cares about Americans winning the Nobel Prize? There's only one American who really matters. So then, on Saturday, after the speech at Mount Rushmore, Trump spoke at the big July 4th rally in D.C. and again, this was supposed to be a celebration of the 250th birthday of America, you know, our country. But here's what Trump posted on Truth Social as he was getting ready to speak. There it is. It's just those two words, I'm here, and then a bunch of exclamation points because again, everything, everything has to be about this guy. And here's what he said at the July 4th rally about our military.

[Commercial Announcer]

You know, to get into our military now is tough. Two years ago, we couldn't fill a job, and now it's overflowing. We have so many setting records. We're setting records. It's actually hard to get in. That includes our great police forces and our firemen. They couldn't hire anybody. Nobody wanted to do it. Now, it's hard to get those positions, but it's really hard to get into our military because people respect and love our country.

[Will Saletan]

Again, see now, now people love our country because. Because Trump is the president. See, two years ago, nobody in America loved America because we didn't have Trump. He's kind of like the guy who's dating your sister, or if you're older, imagine your daughter, and he tells you nobody respected her till she was dating him. So. So the one thing you know about this guy who's dating your sister or your daughter is that he doesn't love her. Right? He only loves himself. And that is the best way to understand how Trump thinks about America. He thinks that America without him is nothing. In fact, he pretty much said that at Mount Rushmore two years ago.

[Commercial Announcer]

We were laughed at, mocked, and a nation in decline. We were in very serious decline last administration. What they've done to us, we can never, ever forget that. And today, we are the hottest country anywhere in the world. Everybody respects us.

[Will Saletan]

Your daughter was laughed at. She was mocked. But now, now, now she's with me. Yeah. Yeah. Now she's hot. She's hot because. Because she's with me. What an absolute dirt bag.

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[Will Saletan]

and then if we play the next thing Trump said, you'll see who he looks to for his opinions about America. He doesn't listen to Americans. He listens to other presidents and kings.

[Commercial Announcer]

Remember this. We're respected. Like no nation in the world is respected like us. Every king, every prime minister, every president, they respect us more than any other country by far. Two years ago, they laughed at us. Now it's only respect.

[Will Saletan]

Every king, he says. In fact, he has one king in mind. It's the king of Saudi Arabia. Let me show you a clip from the interview that Trump did on Thursday. That's two days before July 4th on CNBC a year and a half ago,

[Commercial Announcer]

we were laughed at. They're not laughing anymore. They respect us. The King of Saudi Arabia told me, and I said this numerous times. He said it, but many people said it. He said, president, a year and a half ago, America was dead.

[Will Saletan]

The king of Saudi Arabia. That's who Trump cares about. Okay, think about that. This is the 250th anniversary of America's birthday. We literally declared our independence from a king. And Trump is marking that day by bragging that his buddies, the kings of other countries, told him that America was dead. Can you imagine a more un American statement? And while we're at it, check out what he said in that CNBC interview about Israel.

[Commercial Announcer]

How a Jewish person can vote for a Democrat is beyond me. Well, let's. Because I've been the best president in the history of Israel and they acknowledge. And by the way, in Israel, I think I was at 99% or something.

[Will Saletan]

I don't know what your personal views are about Israel, but think about what Trump said there. He says his approval rating is 99% in Israel. Not America, Israel. He says that he's been the greatest president for Israel and his conclusion is that no Jewish person should vote for a Democrat. Now, I'm assuming that when he says no Jewish person should vote for a Democrat, he means a Jewish person who can legally vote in this country. In other words, a Jewish American. I am a Jewish American and I support Israel. But Donald Trump is telling me on the 250th birthday of my country, the United States, that I have to support him and his party because he's the best president for Israel, because he has a high approval rating in Israel. He's appealing to my allegiance to another country. And he's telling me that if I don't put that allegiance first, I'm irrational. That is a very, very strange idea of patriotism. Let's go back to the speech at Mount Rushmore. Trump said he's tired. He's tired of all the woke nonsense about how America is a bad country.

[Commercial Announcer]

As for those who peddle Marxist lies about our heritage, tell our children that we live on stolen land or that our heroes were oppressors, they're doing something much worse than slandering our past. They are slandering and attacking our future.

[Will Saletan]

Okay, so let's not hear any of that left wing garbage about injustice in America, except, except for the injustice that we know America committed against Donald Trump.

[Commercial Announcer]

Unlike so many others in the world, in this country, we have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equal justice under the law, although I wasn't treated that well. But we won't get into that.

[Will Saletan]

See, it turns out that America is guilty of stealing. Now, it didn't steal land from Native Americans, you know, the people who actually had a birthright to this country. But America did steal one thing. It stole elections from Republicans.

[Commercial Announcer]

All voters must provide a little thing called proof of citizenship. And there will be no mail in ballots except for illness, disability, military deployment, or travel. And you won't have cheating on the elections anymore. It's very simple.

[Will Saletan]

Oh, our elections are full of cheating. Yeah. Yeah. See, we're a great country, according to this. This deeply, deeply patriotic president. Except our elections are rigged, and we know who they're rigged against. Right?

[Commercial Announcer]

We rebuilt our military in my first term. We used it a little bit in our. Actually, I should say third term, but I won't do that because I don't want any controversy.

[Will Saletan]

My third term. He says it's really. It's really his third term because America stole. It stole what should have been his second term. So let's all celebrate America's birthday, and let's not use this solemn occasion to talk about what America did to the natives when we should be talking about what America did to. To Trump. But let's give him credit. Trump did use America's birthday to talk about one genuine threat to our country. And that threat, according to him, is communism.

[Commercial Announcer]

Yet as we approach this magnificent anniversary, we see our American identity under a renewed attack. A generation after we fought and won the Cold War against the menace of communism, there is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success.

[Will Saletan]

Newcomers to our country. See, Trump wants us to think that the threat to American democracy comes from immigrants. People like Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota congresswoman. See, she's an American citizen, but she was born in Somalia, and Trump wants to deport her along with a bunch of other naturalized Americans. But when he tries to explain what's wrong with communism, it turns out that it's not really about where you come from. It's about the abuse of political power to crush your enemies.

[Commercial Announcer]

The godless communist morality states that anything is justified to bring about inhuman visions and. And to really propose what's good.

[Will Saletan]

So the threat to our democracy is people who have no respect for principle or tradition, and they just want control. And to get control, they think anything is justified. Who do we know who thinks that way? Let's ask Donald Trump.

[Commercial Announcer]

We can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms, if we are foolish, stupid, and unwise. But if we terminate the filibuster, as we should do, and immediately vote for the Save America act, then we will not lose an election for 100 years. We do that, we're not going to lose an election for a hundred years.

[Will Saletan]

Okay, so terminate the filibuster, which is a tradition established by the Senate to prevent runaway majority power. Then change the voting rules. That's the Save America Act. And if we do that, according to Trump, Republicans won't lose an election for a hundred years. I can think of some governments in world history that tried to stay in power for a hundred years. We had a name for some of those countries. We called them communists. They did things like using violence to seize power. And then, then they purged anyone in the government who got in their way. Like, say, the parliamentarian of the United States Senate who enforces rules that happen to prevent Trump from ramming his whole agenda through Congress. Here's what Trump posted about that a few days ago. He demanded that Republicans fire that they fire the parliamentarian because she's following rules that that Trump doesn't like. Trump thinks everyone in the government should serve the party, his party. And then he calls other people communists. Look, there is a serious lesson that we can draw from our nation's birthday. The lesson is that this fight we've been in for 250 years is not over. We have to defend the our democracy and our Constitution every day. We have to defend our freedoms and the rule of law every day. And we have to defend it even when the person who's trying to destroy it, the person who's trying to end the American republic, is the guy standing behind the seal of our country pretending to love America. See you next time.

[Bretzky]

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[Commercial Announcer]

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[Bretzky]

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