Rudy Giuliani Sounds Alarm on American Division Ahead of Semiquincentennial

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani stated on Friday that America’s 250th anniversary should mark a weekend of “unabashed patriotism.”

Giuliani warned that a rising democratic socialist movement he identifies as spreading, alongside a major-party base no longer proud of the country, represents an internal division “from within” unlike anything the nation has faced. He tied this warning directly to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialists of America member sworn in January 1 whose election Republicans have made a central talking point ahead of the semiquincentennial.

Giuliani appeared on a cable news show hosted by Rob Finnerty as the country entered its Fourth of July weekend, marking 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He argued Americans should “lose whatever embarrassment has been imposed on us by foreign forces” about being embarrassed about patriotism, calling it no different than “loving your family.”

Materially, Giuliani asserted that “America is by far the greatest nation in the history of the world,” but the country is “not where we should be spiritually” when “one party” contains “a majority of its people not proud to be American.” The former mayor said pressure on American identity has been “imposed on us from without.”

Those who reject the country’s founding, he argued, are drawing on a foreign philosophy the nation rejected in the Revolution. Giuliani condemned the label of “progressive” as misleading, stating, “It’s not progressive to have socialism. Socialism is over 150 years old and has failed 27 times, and it usually leads to communism and violence.”

Pressed by host Rob Finnerty on New York’s political shift, Giuliani said the city he ran from 1994 to 2001 is unrecognizable under Mamdani, who was sworn in as the 112th mayor and openly identifies as a democratic socialist. Finnerty described the situation with, “We have a communist mayor in New York City.”

Giuliani acknowledged the country faces “a very bad time” due to internal division but expressed “hopefulness and optimism,” citing the Civil War and the early days of the Revolution as darker moments the nation survived. He returned to the Declaration of Independence to frame his argument, noting Americans have forgotten that rights it enshrines “don’t come from man. They don’t come from government—they come from God.”

Asked about what Finnerty described as an “Islamification” spreading across Western politics, Giuliani shared “great concern” and urged Americans to “remind themselves that we have all the answers to our progress right within our form of government.” He closed by invoking Thomas Jefferson’s phrase “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as “aspirational,” stating the search itself has made the United States “the greatest nation in the world.”

Progress, Giuliani said, “has to be more progress within the context of our form of government, not a form of government being imposed on us by foreigners.”