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 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 polarized, 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.
