Patriotism met partisanship as America celebrated its 250th birthday.<\/p>\n
President Trump used July 4 to mock<\/a> the Democratic Party and assail his political opponents as \u201cevil,\u201d<\/a> while Democrats seen as potential 2028 presidential candidates responded with speeches that cast his presidency as a betrayal of American ideals.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is one man trying to do to our American self-government what no king and no foreign power has ever managed to do,\u201d Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat considering a run for the White House, said of Mr. Trump. The governor\u2019s speech focused heavily on the president\u2019s 2020 election falsehoods<\/a> and efforts to reshape election rules<\/a> before the midterms.<\/p>\n Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, another potential 2028 Democratic contender, said that \u201cthe very premise of patriotism is under attack.\u201d He did not mention Mr. Trump by name in the speech but repeatedly alluded to him.<\/p>\n For ambitious politicians in both parties, the holiday weekend offered an opportunity to outline mission statements for their brands of politics, while tying them to traditional notions of patriotism.<\/p>\n America\u2019s 250th birthday came at a particularly polarized<\/a> moment. Politicians have long used July 4 as a backdrop to make political appeals and engage with voters, but historians said Mr. Trump\u2019s aggressively partisan and personalized approach to the holiday was unique.<\/p>\n Some Democratic-led states refused to participate in the Trump-backed Great American State Fair<\/a> on the National Mall in Washington, another illustration of the stark divides in the country.<\/p>\n Former President Bill Clinton issued a statement saying that he was concerned about the \u201cdeep division\u201d in the country. He argued that the Trump administration had brought the country \u201cclose to the edge\u201d with its immigration crackdown and what he described as an \u201cunconstitutional war\u201d with Iran. He said he found hope in people lining up to vote.<\/p>\n Mr. Newsom argued in his speech, filmed in the Governor\u2019s Mansion in Sacramento and released Saturday afternoon, that Mr. Trump embodied the \u201cvery behaviors our founding fathers fought against.\u201d<\/p>\n The governor said he was working with state lawmakers to create new safeguards blocking the seizure of ballots, accusing the president of \u201cmeasuring how far he can go\u201d to undermine elections and \u201cshred\u201d the Constitution.<\/p>\n Mr. Moore, speaking to a roomful of military veterans at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, widened his focus beyond the electoral system.<\/p>\n The governor spoke of a \u201crewriting\u201d of U.S. history under an administration that has banned books<\/a> and purged<\/a> records related<\/a> to diversity and inclusion. He said the \u201cpolitics of today feel like a grift.\u201d And the governor, an Army veteran who has often criticized Mr. Trump over the Iran war, declared that \u201cstarting a war without a purpose is not patriotic\u201d and that \u201cending a war without achievement is not victory.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview after the speech, Mr. Moore left little doubt that the president weighed heavily on him as he drafted his remarks. He said he wanted to offer a rebuttal to a strain of \u201csmall,\u201d grievance-fueled nationalism that he said Mr. Trump exemplified.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted the country to remember how big this country is,\u201d Mr. Moore said, urging Americans to embrace a form of patriotism centered on service rather than what he said was a nationalistic impulse to point \u201cfingers at others.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Mr. Clinton\u2019s statement or on the Democratic governors\u2019 speeches. But as Mr. Moore was beginning his remarks, the president wrote on social media<\/a>, \u201cHas anyone ever seen a Happy Dumocrat?\u201d Mr. Trump also mocked a pair of Democrats running in marquee Senate races.<\/p>\n A day earlier, Mr. Trump delivered a dark, partisan speech at Mount Rushmore, describing his political opponents as \u201cgodless\u201d communists and saying that Republicans could only lose the midterm elections if they were \u201cstupid and unwise.\u201d<\/p>\n Communism, the president said, is the \u201cenemy of July 4, 1776.\u201d He has falsely suggested that democratic socialists who have won in a recent<\/a> Democratic primary election<\/a> are communists.<\/p>\n In remarks from City Hall on Friday, Mr. Mamdani, surrounded by recently naturalized immigrants, critiqued what he described as a blind form of patriotism that he said fails to grapple with the country\u2019s flawed history and takes a mistaken view of what makes the country exceptional.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are told that America is exceptional because we are richer, stronger, more powerful than everyone else,\u201d said Mr. Mamdani, a Ugandan-born immigrant. \u201cThe truth, my friends, is that America is exceptional because here nothing is fixed into place.\u201d<\/p>\n On Saturday, Vice President JD Vance pushed back in a speech that appeared to be in direct dialogue with Mr. Mamdani\u2019s. He criticized those who, he said, speak \u201cobsessively not of our national greatness but of our national imperfections.\u201d And he dismissed what he said was \u201czero-sum\u201d thinking that pits the powerful against the powerless and that only finds pride in the defeats of the well-off.<\/p>\n