Trump hails American exceptionalism, evokes 'communist menace' at 250th celebration

US 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 the 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.