After enduring a steady stream of negative news during the first half of the year - sparked by a global pandemic and destructive racial rioting in big cities - last weekend’s July Fourth weekend was a welcome reprieve for the White House.

If one is to believe polls, the president’s numbers have sagged this summer but his appearance at Mount Rushmore was just the kind of juice his campaign needed. With the election four months away, Republican Party strategists are not only depending on the undecided voters, but the silent majority of motivated voters to propel Trump to a second term.

Strategists who choreographed the Mount Rushmore event certainly played up the president’s strengths. There could be no better backdrop for a Trump rally than at the giant monument in the Black Hills, and the president’s speech hit the right patriotic buttons, from the Founding Fathers to the Rushmore presidents.

Even choosing Mary Hart, the famous “Entertainment Tonight” host who is a former Miss South Dakota, to be master of ceremonies was a winner. Her selection as emcee opposed the media-driven narrative that Hollywood stars are all anti-Trump.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem primed the crowd by stating that many in this country are “paralyzed by the present and defeated about the future.” She urged not to forget the Founding Fathers or destroy our history, but that we should learn from it.

In his address, Trump blamed the cancel culture movement for destroying U.S. monuments and statues, charging that protesters - amid demonstrations against racial injustice and police brutality - have waged “a merciless campaign to wipe out our history.”

He said the legacies of the Mount Rushmore presidents - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt - will never be forgotten and that the monument to them will stand forever as an eternal tribute to our freedom.

Trump’s visit to Mount Rushmore capped a good week for him politically, coming on the heels of a better-than-expected unemployment report that showed a new surge in jobs.

Two high profile black American politicians - Burgess Owens and Rep. Vernon Jones - added to the Trump momentum.

Democrats and the liberal media have been using the race card to politicize the high-profile killing of George Floyd, which fueled last month’s nationwide rioting.

But it was Democratic candidate Joe Biden who caused a recent firestorm by telling a black radio host that he “ain’t black” if he was still weighing whether to support him or Trump in the presidential election.

“If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump then you ain’t black,” Biden told the co-host of “The Breakfast Club.”

The idea of the Democratic front runner taking the black vote for granted infuriated many, and after an online uproar, Biden had to issue an apology.

Burgess Owens, who won a primary election for Utah’s 4th Congressional District last week and will face incumbent Democrat Rep. Ben McAdams in the general election, has called Trump “an advocate for black Americans.”

The former pro football player has stated that Democrats in Washington are being controlled by Marxists and socialists, whom he calls enemies of America. He has also criticized the protests at sports events that were fueled by Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the national anthem.

Rep. Vernon Jones, a Democratic lawmaker from Georgia, is another black politician who has endorsed Trump’s re-election, explaining that he puts the country before his party and wishes more people would do the same.

Jones tweeted that as a lifelong Democrat and black man, he came to a realization that “the Democrat Party has become “more concerned about putting illegals first and Americans last.”

Jones added that the Democratic Party has taken the black vote for granted and that “they certainly do not have room under that so-called big tent for those who are black and independent with conservative leanings.”

As Biden emerges from his basement to circulate in public, Democrats should be concerned, not only about his expected gaffes but by the mental alertness of their 77-year-old candidate.

The more Trump is able to stay on script, manage the economy and a devastating pandemic, look and sound presidential - as he was at Mount Rushmore - and push his America first agenda to energize his GOP base, the better his chances for another term.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com