Protesters blocked the roads leading up to Mount Rushmore ahead of President Donald Trump’s Fourth of July speech that is scheduled to take place there Friday evening.
Footage from the RSB Network shows protesters standing on top of several large white vans and blocking traffic in South Dakota, where Trump is scheduled to give a speech and a fireworks display Friday night. The protesters were holding signs and flags and had reportedly slashed the tires of the vans they were standing on. (RELATED: Republican Attorneys General Warn Of ‘Cancel Culture’ Targeting Mt Rushmore Ahead Of 4th Of July Weekend)
BREAKING: Protesters have slashed the tires on vans and are blocking the road leading to Mt. Rushmore where President Trump is scheduled to speak tonight in honor of the 4th of July pic.twitter.com/gI4WyxQm59
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 3, 2020
Riot police were eventually called to the scene. A video from the RSB network showed a group of officers forming a line in front of the protesters.
Riot police have arrived on the scene pic.twitter.com/lgLda4cyF5
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 3, 2020
President Trump’s plans to host a Fourth of July celebration at Mount Rushmore sparked backlash from Democrats who accused the president of “glorifying white supremacy.”
“Trump has disrespected Native communities time and again,” the Democratic party’s official Twitter account wrote in a now-deleted tweet. “He’s attempted to limit their voting rights and blocked critical pandemic relief. Now he’s holding a rally glorifying white supremacy at Mount Rushmore, a region once sacred to tribal communities.”
Native American groups have also protested the event and said Mount Rushmore is a “symbol of white supremacy.”
“Mount Rushmore is a symbol of white supremacy, of structural racism that’s still alive and well in society today,” Nick Tilsen, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, told the Associated Press.
“It’s an injustice to actively steal Indigenous people’s land, then carve the white faces of the colonizers who committed genocide,” he added.
This is a developing story.