Tune in as Air Force One flies over Mount Rushmore while the nation celebrates its 250th birthday.
President Donald Trump marked the eve of America's 250th anniversary with a sweeping patriotic address at Mount Rushmore on Friday, declaring the United States the "most exceptional nation ever to exist" and vowing that it would "never be a Communist country."
Speaking beneath the granite likenesses of four of his predecessors — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt — Trump touted American exceptionalism as festivities marking the nation's 250th anniversary ramped up across the country.
"In all the chronicles of the ages, never before has any nation celebrated so magnificent a triumph as this one," Trump told the crowd.
President Donald Trump delivers remarks at Mount Rushmore on the eve of America's 250th anniversary. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
"At 250 years, America is the oldest republic on earth," he continued. "We are the freest people on earth. We have the most righteous and enduring Constitution on earth. We are the strongest and most powerful country on earth. And by the grace of God, the United States of America is the most successful, most accomplished, most exceptional nation ever to exist in human history."
Trump praised the nation's history and argued that no other country had achieved as much as the United States.
"The birth and survival of the American nation under God is, quite simply, the best and most incredible thing ever to happen on this planet by human hands, ever," he said. "No other country has done more good for this world than the United States of America."
Fireworks explode after President Donald Trump spoke at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Friday, July 3, 2026, near Keystone, South Dakota. (AP Photo/Matt Gade)
Before Trump took the stage, the new Air
