Far-left protesters burned an American flag near the White House on Saturday and chanted, “America was never great” moments after President Trump finished delivering a speech at the “Salute to America” Independence Day celebration.
Video shows the flag being burned in Black Lives Matter Plaza, just outside the White House. Activists can be heard chanting, “One, two, three, four, slavery, genocide and war. Five, six, seven, eight, America was never great.”
Both groups have frequently spoken out against the Trump administration and its policies.
The demonstration outside the White House comes as many citizens reflect on Independence Day in the context of nationwide protests against police brutality and racism. Some of those protests have featured calls to tear down Confederate statues or monuments that commemorate figures who supported slavery.
Trump has criticized such protesters, including at Salute to America, where he called out the “radical left.”
“We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters and people who in many instances have absolutely no clue what they are doing,” he said in his address.
The president has also fiercely criticized flag burning, saying last month those who burn the American flag should go to jail.
Burning the American flag is not illegal, however, and the Supreme Court ruled in the 1989 case Texas v. Johnson that the action is protected by the First Amendment.
Updated 11:11 p.m.