By Trevor Hunnicutt
MEDORA, North Dakota, July 1 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump rode a train through the Badlands of North Dakota on Wednesday to dedicate a museum honoring Theodore Roosevelt and invoke the Republican president’s rugged legacy as part of celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary.
The so-called Freedom 250 train, bedecked with red, white and blue bunting and emblazoned with 1776-2026, arrived near the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library with loud bursts of its horn. Trump disembarked to chants of “USA” from a crowd gathered nearby.
Trump’s motorcade to the library was accompanied by horseback riders dressed like Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders,” the nickname given to the military unit Roosevelt led up Cuba’s San Juan Hill in 1898 during the Spanish-American War.
The visit comes as Trump uses the anniversary of U.S. independence on Saturday to highlight his leadership and vision for the country ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The trip to Medora in remote western North Dakota also marked the debut of a refurbished Boeing 747 gifted by Qatar that will serve as Air Force One, featuring a red, white, dark blue and gold paint scheme selected by Trump.
The plane has drawn scrutiny due to the cost and rapid pace of renovations, as well as the unusual acceptance of a luxury jumbo jet from a foreign country. Trump has dismissed criticism of the arrangement, and the Air Force has said the plane is up to presidential standards.
Before boarding the inaugural flight on Wednesday, Trump told reporters that Qatar “treated us very well” and that the Qatari leader contributing the plane was “very nice.”
Asked about the cost to taxpayers, Trump said the gifted plane cost “very little relative to what it would cost if we did it a different way.”
“We’re very proud of this, the country is very proud of it,” Trump said, adding the older Air Force One “didn’t look appropriate for our country.”
“They made it appropriate for a president, that means the security and all of the different bells and whistles they put on, very complex stuff,” Trump said.
Trump’s emphasis on patriotic events marking the country’s “semiquincentennial” comes as Americans remain sharply divided over the Republican president, the country’s dominant political figure for a decade.
The celebrations have been central to his messaging in an election year dominated by voter concern over the cost of living and the Iran war.
TRUMP HAILS ‘GREAT MAN’
The Theodore Roosevelt library opens in North Dakota on Saturday. The 96,000-square-foot (8,919-square-meter) facility overlooks a national park named for Roosevelt because of the formative years he spent in the nearby Badlands, an arid region known for dramatic rock formations.
On a tour of the library, Trump said of Roosevelt, a rugged conservationist who served as president from 1901 to 1909: “He was a great man and it’s a great place.”
Trump has spoken admiringly of Roosevelt who expanded the nation’s reach, helping to push Spain out of the Americas and claiming the Panama Canal. During his tenure, the United States was emerging as the global power it remains.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a press release that Trump shares Roosevelt’s “conviction in American greatness, and in the belief that this nation’s finest age is yet to come.”
As part of his week of events, Trump plans on Friday to visit Mount Rushmore, the South Dakota mountain sculpture of Roosevelt and former Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. He’s also expected to deliver a campaign-style speech on Saturday as part of a July 4 celebration in Washington that will include a 35-minute fireworks display over the Potomac River.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Bo Erickson and Idrees Ali; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman and Chizu Nomiyama)
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