US President Donald Trump opened 16 days of celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary Wednesday with a rally-style speech – turning a national commemoration into a highly politicised showcase for his second-term agenda.The address, on Washington’s National Mall, underscored how Trump has reshaped the anniversary around his own brand of politics and showmanship, blurring the line between official celebration and campaign-style spectacle.The Republican leader eventually invoked the grand sweep of American history, but the first part of his address was largely indistinguishable from one of his political rallies – albeit delivered in a more subdued tone.“As we stand on the edge of our 250th year of independence, I am thrilled to declare that America is back,” Trump said, reworking a familiar rallying cry.“And, as you know very well, a short time ago, we were a dead country. We were dead. Now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world.”Trump began with the Middle East, framing the unpopular and widely criticised US-Israeli war with Iran as a major victory for Americans, and called the US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro one of the “great military raids in history”.