Politics and views in the United States

Trump calls Democratic Socialist candidates a resurgent ‘communist menace’. Iran mourns former Supreme Leader Khamenei. And, the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to assault weapons bans.

Transcript

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

Many nations have paper constitutions and legal systems, but the citizens live in fear and squalor.

A constitution is only as strong as the people and the culture responsible for upholding it.

On America's 250th anniversary, President Donald Trump says Americans must remember the country's founding principles and core values.

A new federal court ruling says the Interior Department can remove a third of National Park exhibits targeted by a Trump executive order calling for, quote, restoring truth and sanity to American history.

Historians sued on First Amendment grounds, calling it whitewashing America's past to remove exhibits on black, indigenous, immigrant, LGBTQ plus history.

In his speech at Mount Rushmore, Trump called recent primary wins by progressive and democratic socialist candidates a, quote, resurgence of the communist menace.

He tied it to his anti-immigrant agenda, saying, quote, the newcomers need to be expelled.

In contrast, Maryland Democratic Governor Wes Moore, a possible 2028 presidential candidate, says hyper-partisanship and virulent nationalism are not patriotism.

Moore says America does itself no favors by denying things that actually happened.

There are those who will use patriotism to justify pulling books from schools and rewriting history until it comforts those in power.

In reality, that's not patriotism.

That's nationalism.

And nationalism is not an extension of patriotism.

They are not interchangeable.

There's a difference and it does matter.

Speaking from Rome, Pope Leo XVI hailed U.S. ideals as addressing real human needs.

The first American-born pope called for a return to the respect for different opinions practiced by the founding fathers.

The forebearers of this country, men and women of diverse backgrounds, religions, and languages, were able to find that common ground and the strength necessary to pursue a better future.

As the U.S. celebrated Independence Day, Iran began mourning Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Islamic Republic's longtime supreme leader was killed in the earliest days of the war.

Many at his funeral vowed revenge, with military and security officials leading chants of death to America.

In spite of years of brutal crackdowns on mass protests, international experts say the war tightened the military and theocratic establishments' grip.

With the Supreme Court's term wrapped up, some are looking to cases the High Court will hear next term.

The court has announced it will hear challenges to assault weapons bans in Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois.

Connecticut's law was passed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting when 26 students and teachers were killed by a man with an AR-15-style assault rifle.

Earl Bloodworth, with Connecticut Against Gun Violence, says recent precedents favor the ban.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld Connecticut's law and found the Second Amendment right to bear arms is not unlimited and that the state's restriction on unusually dangerous weapons to be consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation.

The plaintiffs argue those laws violate the Second Amendment, and similar positions have done well before the current conservative court.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira for Pacific Network and Public News Service.

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