“ANGLO-SAXON COURAGE”
The US president appeared in a jovial mood, even joking about the length of his own marriage to Melania Trump, a day after calling for the sacking of comedian Jimmy Kimmel for likening the First Lady to an “expectant widow.”
Kimmel made the joke days before an alleged attempt to assassinate the president.
Yet Trump’s speech also struck an unexpected note.
Despite American pride at ousting the British to create their own nation 250 years ago, the Republican leader repeatedly emphasized the common heritage between Britain and the United States.
He even hailed Britain’s role in colonising North America, a controversial subject given the atrocities against native people, by waves of European conquerors who crossed the Atlantic.
“Here on a wild and untamed continent, they set loose the ancient English love of liberty,” Trump said.
Trump’s remarks played into his nationalist administration’s wider rejection of “woke” history, in favor of celebrating white, European culture and downplaying colonial excess and slavery.
And Britain, Trump said, was a part of his version of the American story.
“The American patriots who pledged their lives to independence in 1776, were the heirs to this majestic inheritance,” Trump said.
“Their veins ran with Anglo-Saxon courage.”
