Trump overruled every agency that recommended cancelling Saturday’s “Salute America” rally after storms forced a mass evacuation of the Mall. “When POTUS heard this, he told all involved to invite everyone back in and the speech would take place,” a senior White House official said. Trump then used America’s 250th birthday stage to demand new voting restrictions and warn that “communists” could gain ground in the country.
The speech framed the weekend. The moves filled it in. The administration released a plan Friday to eliminate 702 administrative rules — environmental reviews and diversity requirements gone by September. It is scrapping more than three dozen firearms regulations, restoring gun rights to some people with mental illness and loosening oversight of private sales. The New York Times reports Trump’s “disparate impact” executive order has emptied civil-rights enforcement across education, housing and the EEOC — legal advocates call it a generational void. Trump pardoned 11 Clean Air Act violators Friday, including a major donor.
