Gov. Wes Moore celebrated the nation’s semiquincentennial in a brief address on patriotism from the Maryland State House, addressing veterans and their families on Saturday morning.

Independence Day is necessarily a day of “reverence” and “reflection,” Moore said, as the founders’ ideal remain “unfinished,” he said.

“Patriotism is not simply pride in what America has been. It’s taking ownership for what America can become,” Moore said, defining it separately from nationalism while throwing barbs at President Donald Trump.

“Nationalism is not an extension of patriotism. They are not interchangeable. There’s a difference, and it does matter,” Moore said.

“Starting a war without a purpose is not patriotic. Ending a war without achievement is not victory,” he said, referring to the recent war in Iran. Moore also said that Americans are “fed up with watching politicians profit off of public office,” another common criticism of the president that has been reported by several outlets, including the New York Times and the Associated Press.

“Patriotism asks you to fight for values and an ideal. Today’s version of nationalism asks you to fight for a person or a group. Patriotism wants you to build something bigger than yourself, but nationalism emboldens people to feel bigger than somebody else. To name a grievance. To find a target. To give people someone to blame. The anxiety that creates is where nationalism thrives.”

Rather, Moore said, real patriotism demands seeing each other’s common humanity and working together to make things better.

Moore recognized several Maryland veterans during his address, including two of his own ancestors.

Moore traced his lineage to a Black and Indigenous Revolutionary War solider named Prince Ames, who fought at the historic battles of Lexington, and Concord and Bunker Hill.

“For nearly six years, he fought for a country and a cause that did not yet include him — but that he perhaps believed maybe one day, it would include his children. And maybe even his children’s children. And today, in a building that was partially built by the hands of enslaved people, I — his great-great-great-great-great grandson — now serve as the first Black governor in Maryland’s history,” the governor said.

Another notable veteran in Moore’s life, his grandfather, the first Black minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, taught the governor about the meaning of patriotism, he said. Moore said he carried a Bible from his grandfather in his flak vest during his deployment in Afghanistan. Inside the bible, Moore’s grandfather wrote: “Have faith, not fear.”

“Fear is the accelerant of nationalism. Faith is the foundation of patriotism,” Moore said.

“So today, and every day, let’s choose faith … A faith that we are fighting for a country that is worth fighting for. A faith that when it’s our turn to hand this country off to the next generation, that our descendants will say that we understand the assignment. The faith that our best days are still ahead of us.”

Moore’s speech drew condemnation from one Maryland lawmaker a day in advance on Friday.

“There are so many patriotic Fourth of July parades across Maryland tomorrow, where families, veterans, and neighbors will be celebrating our country together,” Del. Kathy Szeliga wrote on X.

“Instead, @GovWesMoore will be in air conditioning giving a speech. Why isn’t the governor out meeting Marylanders, shaking hands, and celebrating Independence Day with the people he serves?”

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