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Voices in the background can be heard saying “awesome” and “that is so cool” in reaction to the golden model of Mr Trump. Others laugh and someone chants: “Four more years!” In reference to a chant popular with Mr Trump’s supporters when he was America’s president.

The statue of the former US president has caused a stir on social media, with Twitter users responding to Bloomberg reporter William Turton’s tweet calling it everything from “obscene” to “perfect.”

Other Twitter users went as far as to compare the model of Mr Trump to Moses’ golden calf in the Bible, with caricatures and even a spoof YouTube video springing up in response.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1365109969490567169

In a triumphal farewell address, President Donald Trump declared, “We did what we came here to do.” While never mentioning Joe Biden or Kamala Harris by name, he acknowledged that his term as the 45th president of the United States is coming to an end and that a new administration was to be inaugurated. He encouraged Americans to pray for the new administration in its efforts to keep America safe and prosperous. Additionally, he wished the administration luck, “a very important word.”

In the 20 minute speech, Trump thanked family and staff. Then he moved on to tout his administration’s accomplishments before being derailed by the “China virus.” In response to the pandemic he claimed, “The whole world suffered, but America outperformed other countries economically.” The 45th President also spent several minutes explicating the exceptionalism of America.

Writing for Faithwire, Tré Goins-Phillips reports:

“A nation is only as strong as its spirit,” Trump said. “We are only as dynamic as our pride. We are only as vibrant as the faith that beats in the hearts of our people. No nation can long thrive that loses faith in its own values, history, and heroes — for these are the very sources of our unity and our vitality.”

 

Trump, who then pivoted to addressing the importance of protecting the freedom of speech, encouraged Americans to spend time “focusing on what we have in common, the heritage that we all share.”

 

“At the center of this heritage is also a robust belief in free expression, free speech, and open debate,” the president said. “Only if we forget who we are and how we got here could we ever allow political censorship and blacklisting to take place in America. It’s not even thinkable. Shutting down free and open debate violates our core values and most enduring traditions.”

 

“In America,” Trump continued, “we don’t insist on absolute conformity or enforce rigid orthodoxies and punitive speech codes. We just don’t do that. America is not a timid nation of tame souls who need to be sheltered and protected from those with whom we disagree. That’s not who we are. It will never be who we are.”

 

The Republican leader praised the American people for always displaying “unmatched courage, confidence, and fierce independence,” describing those characteristics as the “miraculous traits that once led millions of everyday citizens to set out across a wild continent and carve out a new life in the great West.”

 

Read the full article here.