WASHINGTON (AP) – Through history, the Fourth of July has been a day for some presidents to declare their independence from the public. They’ve made tracks to the beach, the mountains, the golf course, the farm, the ranch. In the middle of the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt was sailing to a Hawaii vacation.
It’s also been a day for some presidents to insert themselves front and center in the fabric of it all, as Donald Trump plans to do Thursday with his speechifying and showmanship. Teddy Roosevelt drew crowds in the hundreds of thousands for his oratory and Richard Nixon enraged the anti-war masses without even showing up.
In modern times, though, presidents have tended to stand back and let the people party. George W. Bush had a ceremony welcoming immigrants as new citizens. Barack Obama threw a South Lawn barbecue for troops. Trump’s plan to command center stage with his words and American military might has the capital cleaving along political lines.
As the anti-Nixon demonstrations of 1970 showed, Independence Day in the capital isn’t always just fun and games. It has a tradition of red, white and boo, too.
And when protesters make their presence felt Thursday, that will be as American as the cherries and milk that apparently soured Zachary Taylor’s gut when he wolfed them down July 4, 1850, and died five days later.