Donald Trump has hailed the “unmatched achievement and unlimited potential” of the US in a triumphalist address marking the country’s 250th anniversary.

In a late-night campaign-style speech in Washington DC on Saturday, the US president claimed his country was “just getting started” as he vowed to take it “to new levels”.

Celebrations have been marred by extreme weather, including a dangerous heatwave in recent days, and a passing storm that delayed Trump’s speech. An apparent white nationalist march through the streets of Washington also caused alarm.

When he finally appeared, at 11.15pm, the president reached for a string of his favored topics, from promising a new “golden age of America” to repeating unfounded allegations of election fraud by his political opponents.

“America is a nation of winners,” Trump declared. “Today our country is winning again.”

He spoke before a vast fireworks display billed by organizers as the largest “in world history” to mark the occasion.

An extreme heatwave across the US east coast upended some of the weekend’s long-planned celebrations. Saturday’s Independence Day parade through the nation’s capital was abruptly canceled, a day after a parade was also canceled in Philadelphia, where the country’s Declaration of Independence from Britain was signed in 1776.

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Trump’s second inauguration ceremony in January 2025 was the first to be staged indoors since 1985, as a wave Arctic air sent temperatures tumbling to frigid levels. On Saturday, as he prepared to address the US semiquincentennial festivities in Washington, they rose above 100F (37.8C) in Washington amid sweltering conditions.

As of 8pm, emergency services in Washington had treated 51 people with heat-related issues, with 12 taken to nearby hospitals, according to the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.

But the weather started to turn after the first spectators filed into the site, and they were forced to evacuate for more than two hours because of fears of a thunderstorm. Rain and lightning followed.

“Storms bring luck to whatever the occasion,” Trump wrote on social media, as thousands reluctantly traipsed through the exits, promising to “wait it out”. Later on stage, Trump claimed he would have still spoken even had it been “in front of one person at four o’clock in the morning”.

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He introduced a number of military veterans and the crew of the historic Artemis II lunar flyby mission, as he rattled through select moments of US history. The country is “the hope, the promise, the light and the glory” of the world, Trump claimed.

He has repeatedly torn apart convention during the anniversary celebrations, during which a US president would typically be expected to rise above the political fray and attempt to strike a chord with citizens of all persuasions. (His living predecessors were notably absent at the main events in Washington.)

On Friday evening, in a speech delivered beneath the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln carved into Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, Trump launched an extraordinary attack on what he termed the “communist menace” in America, framing its supporters as “the enemy of July 4th 1776”.

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He has increasingly sought to cast progressive Democrats as communists who pose an existential threat to the US, and continued to attack “communism” as he addressed the crowds on Saturday, saying that it would never be allowed to “rear its ugly head” in the country.

“We don’t want communists in our country,” the president said. “It never worked, and it never will work.”

Trump’s allies have been accused of using the anniversary celebrations to stoke, rather than heal, the country’s divisions – and turning an historically nonpartisan moment of patriotism into a political vehicle for propaganda.

A high-security perimeter was installed around the site of Trump’s speech, in the shadow of the Washington Monument. Thousands of National Guards troops have been stationed throughout the city, after an increase in recent weeks.

Behind the stage, just out of sight, lay the reflecting pool. The president ordered a $14.7m renovation to turn the site “American Flag blue” in time for the country’s 250th birthday celebrations, an effort thwarted by a vast algae bloom that turned it green. Trump and his officials have blamed vandals for the project’s misfortunes.

The president, who has previously fretted about the size of crowds he has drawn to the National Mall, had urged Americans to come out and watch what he promised would be “the greatest show of all” on Saturday night.

“Your favorite president will be speaking. So please show up,” Trump said at the launch of the Great American State Fair in late June.Were that not enough, he claimed the ensuing fireworks display would be “10 times larger” than any ever done on US soil.

Having sought to highlight examples of American perseverance and strength over the past two and half centuries, Trump pointed to Saturday’s weather – and the way many revelers returned, having been sent away – as an example of the nation’s resilience.

“You heard it was over,” he told the crowd. “And what happened? You came back.”