What Wes Moore said about Trump, America 250 and how Democrats can harness insurgent energy
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is on an Independence Day collision course with President Donald Trump.
Moore is planning to deliver a sweeping speech on patriotism on July Fourth from the Maryland State House in Annapolis — with the aim of counterprogramming what Trump promised would be the "most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all, a ‘TRIBUTE TO AMERICA.’”
In an interview with POLITICO, Moore said he thinks Trump is going to spend the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding talking about himself — but that America deserves something more.
“The president is incapable of meeting the moment,” Moore said.
In his split-screen remarks, called “The Work of Patriotism,” the former Army captain and Afghanistan veteran is expected to “make the case that Democrats cannot cede patriotism to Donald Trump — and that love of country is not about loyalty to one man, one party, or one political spectacle,” according to Ammar Moussa, Moore’s press secretary.
Moore will “draw a contrast between patriotism and nationalism, making the case that nationalism is about allegiance to a person or a movement, while patriotism is about allegiance to the country and the people who make it worth fighting for,” Moussa said.
“We are a nation of strength because we are a nation of sacrifice,” Moore will say, according to a draft of his remarks.
But Moore insisted he’s not trying to be a foil to the president.
“I’m trying to be a foil to darkness,” Moore said. “I think I'm trying to be a foil to fatalism. I think I’m trying to be a foil to self-serving ideologies. What I want people to know in all this is that I believe strongly that we need a future-facing vision for this nation.”
