Trump hails American exceptionalism before railing at communism in US 250th celebration

President Donald Trump ushered in the 250th anniversary of US independence on Friday with rhetoric about American exceptionalism before calling on the country to fight what he called a sinister threat of communism. The speech evoked the Red Scare of the 1950s, one of the country’s ugliest chapters, when alleged communists were persecuted and blacklisted from jobs across America.