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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, 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.
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And by the way, we won big here. We won really big. Each, each and every time we.
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He 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.
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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 one. Instead of eight wars, I still haven't gotten it. That's okay.
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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.
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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.
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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. 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.
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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.
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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. 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. To other presidents and kings.
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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.
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Now it's only respect 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.
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A year and a half ago, 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.
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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.
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How a Jewish person can vote for a Democrat is beyond me. Well, let's talk about. 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.
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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, I am a Jewish American, and, 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 patriots.