By Trevor Hunnicutt
MEDORA, North Dakota, July 1 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump dedicated a museum honoring Theodore Roosevelt on Wednesday, invoking the Republican president’s legacy and linking it to his own vision for America ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary.
The trip to remote western North Dakota also featured the debut of a refurbished Boeing 747 gifted by Qatar that will serve as Air Force One, as well as a ride in the Badlands aboard a “Freedom 250” train bedecked with red, white and blue bunting and emblazoned with 1776-2026.
Trump’s embrace of patriotic celebrations leading up to the Fourth of July holiday comes as Americans remain sharply divided over his leadership amid voter concerns about the cost of living and the Iran war ahead of the November midterm elections.
Speaking at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, Trump praised Roosevelt’s energy and adventurous life while drawing contrasts with political opponents.
Trump said Roosevelt’s chest swelled with pride at American optimism and confidence. “The biggest word I think for him was pride. He was a proud man. But I’m a proud man. I’m proud of our country,” Trump said.
Trump criticized Democrats, including democratic socialists who have won a string of recent primary elections in New York, Colorado and elsewhere.
“We’re not going to let communists get in our way,” he said. “It’s a very unattractive lot.”
Trump’s motorcade to the library was accompanied by horseback riders dressed like Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders,” the nickname given to the military unit Roosevelt led up Cuba’s San Juan Hill in 1898 during the Spanish-American War.
Roosevelt, a native New Yorker, was a rugged conservationist who served as president from 1901 to 1909. Trump has long spoken admiringly of Roosevelt, who expanded the nation’s reach, helping to push Spain out of the Americas and claiming the Panama Canal.
After the deaths of Roosevelt’s wife and mother on the same day in 1884, he spent time in the North Dakota Badlands to grieve and heal.
The library dedicated to him opens in North Dakota on Saturday. The 96,000-square-foot (8,919-square-meter) facility overlooks a national park named for Roosevelt because of the formative years he spent in the nearby Badlands, an arid region known for dramatic rock formations.
FIRST FLIGHT
Before leaving Washington early on Wednesday, Trump told reporters he was excited for the inaugural flight of the new Air Force One, which features a red, white, dark blue and gold paint scheme he selected.
The plane has drawn scrutiny due to the cost and rapid pace of renovations, as well as the unusual acceptance of a luxury jumbo jet from a foreign country. Trump has dismissed criticism of the arrangement, and the Air Force has said the plane is up to presidential standards.
Asked about the cost to taxpayers, Trump said the gifted plane cost “very little relative to what it would cost if we did it a different way.”
“We’re very proud of this, the country is very proud of it,” Trump said, adding the older Air Force One “didn’t look appropriate for our country.”
“They made it appropriate for a president, that means the security and all of the different bells and whistles they put on, very complex stuff,” Trump said.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Steve Holland; Additional reporting by Bo Erickson and Idrees Ali; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman and Chizu Nomiyama)
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