Independence Day marked by division on the streets of Washington

Demonstrators chanting "Black Lives Matter" exchange words with activists waving pro-Trump signs outside a fortified White House: America’s Independence Day was marked in Washington on Saturday and late Sunday by confrontation and disunity.

As it struggles to contain the coronavirus and reckons with waves of protesters demanding racial justice, the United States is deeply polarised, with the gulf seemingly insurmountable on a day usually marking patriotism and unity.

The one thing people outside the White House -- surrounded by an imposing police cordon -- and on the nearby National Mall seemed to be able to agree on was that this was not where they wanted America be.

"We should be celebrating our unity, diversity, liberty, we shouldn’t be looking at each other as enemies ready to go to war," pro-Trump transgender activist Kristy Pandora Greczowski told AFP.

Mary Byrne, 54, who came with her two sons, said she was worried about the "antagonism" that currently reigns. "We are not talking to each other anymore, we are yelling at each other. We need to look inside to see what’s wrong with us," she said.

Americans have long been divided between liberal and conservative values. But the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic has caused deep fear and anxiety. Then, in May, an African American man was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, igniting waves of protest.

Since then the United States has begun a historic soul-searching as it reckons with its racist past, modern racial injustices -- including those further illuminated by the impact of the virus -- and police brutality.

Trump, far from advocating national reconciliation, has stoked divisions. "We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children or trample on our freedoms," he told the crowd on the White House lawn later on Saturday evening.