'Free speech': Trump aide pressed to condemn White nationalist group
A member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet was pressed in a new interview to condemn the White supremacist group Patriot Front, which marched in Washington on July 4.
During the interview on CNN's "State of the Union," host Dana Bash asked Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about a now-viral photograph captured by Reuters freelance photographer Cheney Orr, which showed a Black woman surrounded by masked White nationalists on a train car.
Patriot Front members were spotted on Independence Day outside Washington's main train station, Union Station, and the Eastern Market metro stop near the U.S. Capitol building. The group is a secretive organization founded in 2017 by Thomas Rousseau following the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where counterprotester Heather Heyer was killed.
When questioned by the CNN anchor if he was concerned about the group's presence, the Interior secretary applauded the nation's 250th anniversary celebrations and told Bash, "we know from our very founding that this is something that divided our nation." He praised the leadership of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and said, "we can be an exceptional nation because our ideals are exceptional, that all men are created equal."
Bash then asked the former North Dakota governor if he condemned Patriot Front's actions and values.
"What they stand for is nothing that I could possibly agree with," Burgum replied. "But one of the foundational principles of the United States which makes democracy messy is free speech."
"There are plenty of things that I see that I might personally find offensive, [reprehensible,] but in America, free speech is allowed and this is by the whole spectrum of things," Burgum told Bash.
He then noted that America is a country where people who support communism can be elected, even though "this is what our nation has stood against and fought for because we're about life and liberty. We're not about death and tyranny."
Bash interrupted and said she wanted to "move on," asking Burgum, an ex-Microsoft executive who later ran for president against Trump in 2024, if he would recommend that his boss condemn Patriot Front.
Burgum told Bash that "part of my response to that is there are protests on the (National) Mall that people say things that I think are [reprehensible] about President Trump, and yet they're allowed to go on because of free speech in our country."
In videos that circulated online, hundreds of members of Patriot Front were seen carrying its flag, Confederate flags and variations of the U.S. flag, at times chanting "Reclaim America." The group posted on social media confirming that members gathered in the nation's capital on July 4, but they were not seen at major Independence Day festivities.
Contributing: Mike Snider, Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Free speech': Trump aide pressed to condemn White nationalist group
Reporting by Jay Stahl, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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This story was originally published July 5, 2026 at 8:29 AM.