Protesters burn the American flag outside White House after Trump’s July Fourth address

Washington, (ST)  – Anti-racist protesters burned the American flag outside White House after Trump’s July fourth address on the occasion of Independence Day.

The flag-burning was organized by the Revolutionary Communist Party. A speak out before the event was held by Refuse Fascism, which also held protests nationwide on July Fourth calling for the removal of Trump and Vice President Pence from office. Refuse Fascism posted on its website that it also created and then tore down a “statue” of Trump outside of Trump Tower in New York.

Both groups have frequently spoken out against the Trump administration and its policies.

The demonstration outside the White House comes as many citizens reflect on Independence Day in the context of nationwide protests against police brutality and racism. Some of those protests have featured calls to tear down Confederate statues or monuments that commemorate figures that supported slavery.

Trump has criticized such protesters, including in his speech at the “Salute to America” where he called out the “radical left.”

“We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and people who in many instances have absolutely no clue what they are doing,” he said in his address.

The president has also fiercely criticized flag burning, saying last month those who burn the American flag should go to jail.

Burning the American flag is not illegal, however, and the Supreme Court ruled in the 1989 case Texas v. Johnson that the action is protected by the First Amendment.

In the same context, protesters, most of whom are of African descent, organized a march in Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta, Georgia, yesterday, demanding the removal of a huge sculpture symbolizing the confederation present at the site.

The New York Times indicated that Trump’s speech on Independence Day in Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, has caused divisions and cultural warfare among Americans, adding that, with the Corona epidemic spreading dangerously in the country, its appearance was a desperate attempt to revive his election campaign, using Independence Day as an official presidential address to wage a full cultural war on protesters.

Raghda Sawas