Morton Irvine Smith is the great, great grandson of pioneer James Irvine, after whom the City of Irvine, California, was named. He comes from a long line of patriots, he says, including Rev. William Smith, friend of founding fathers George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.
“I don’t speak to politics. I speak from my heart, with 270 years of patriot blood. My message seems to resonate with people on a level that kind of takes them out of the meanness of the politics and the swampiness of the policy,” Smith, 55, told The Epoch Times.
“I try to bring them to a place of what it means to be a patriot and be proud that they are contributing to the survival of America.”
He'll speak on Jan. 5 at the One Nation Under God rally in Washington, D.C. He left Orange County on Jan. 3 to make the journey, joining many supporters of President Donald Trump congregating there.
He called them rallies “to save America.”
Smith isn’t happy with how he sees Trump supporters portrayed by mainstream media as conspiracy theorists and white supremacists.
He accused the media of inciting a civil war “that nobody is going to win,” and he said media outlets “are being weaponized” to create hatred toward patriotic Americans.
The notion that America is “fundamentally filled with these horrible people that make up ... the voice of American pride ... is simply a falsehood,” he said.
It’s a way to whip up hysteria, he said, distracting people from the real issues the nation is facing, including problems with election integrity.
“We are a traditional American family that loves holidays and Christmas. We love football, and we love the Fourth of July,” Smith said.
He read out the epitaph of his ancestor William Smith, who he said is “one of the great forgotten founders of the American Revolution.”
The epitaph, written by Thomas Paine, states, “His early and unwavering patriotism will endear his memory to all friends of the American Revolution.”
The pro-Trump movement has become a revolution, Smith said. “It has been born into a revolution because of the resistance to what should have been a very peaceful pathway to restoring America’s pride in itself.”
He sees Trump as fighting against communism and the infiltration of the Chinese Communist Party into American institutions. “It happened on everybody’s watch, and I don’t think we truly know the gravity and the depth [of that infiltration],” he said.
“The one person I know that is not susceptible is our president. I believe that in my heart. I believe that he is not bought off by any foreign government and is truly motivated by the American people only.”
