President Trump wants to make this year’s 4th of July celebration in Washington “one of the gaudiest, most over-the-top displays of jingoism in American history,” says Rolling Stone — including, if he gets his way, 60-ton battle tanks on the Mall.
The Navy’s Blue Angels will do a flyover, as will other military aircraft, including one of the jets that serves as Air Force One when the president is aboard. And there will be a 35-minute pyrotechnic display, roughly twice as long as last year’s, provided by two major fireworks companies.
The star of this grandiose show? Trump himself. Not the Declaration of Independence in 1776, but the president, speaking at the Lincoln Memorial (the towering statue of Abraham Lincoln seated behind) to a crowd that will include a VIP section for those holding tickets from the White House.
“The ongoing negotiations over whether to use massive military hardware … as a prop for Trump’s “Salute to America” is just one of many unfinished details when it comes to the celebration planned for Thursday, according to several people briefed on the plan, who requested anonymity to speak frankly,” reports the Washington Post.
Dan Rather weighs in saying, “It seems Pres. Trump wants a militarized Fourth of July celebration more similar to the kinds of events overseen by dictators like his buddy Kim Jong-un. I prefer the Boston Pops, hot dogs, and Uncle Sams on stilts.”
All this is an enormous burden — both in cost and manpower — on the National Park Service, an agency of the Interior Department, which is already struggling with “an $11 billion backlog in maintenance needs,” mostly caused by natural disasters in vast parts of the West.
The White House declined the Post’s request for comment on the plans, or their cost.
“Trump has been fixated since early in his term with putting on a military-heavy parade or other celebration modeled on France’s Bastille Day celebration, which he attended in Paris in 2017,” the Post says, noting that the president “angrily backed off plans for a grand Veterans Day parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in 2018 amid concerns from District officials over costs and potential road damage from military vehicles.”
Of course, there will be many people in Washington for Independence Day besides those who want to hear Trump — including protesters.
“Anti-Trump protesters, including the group Code Pink, are negotiating with Park Service officials over whether a massive “Trump Baby” balloon they want to fly will comply with flight restrictions that will be in place over the Mall during the Fourth,” says the Post.
“But at least one protest is going forward: a group of senior citizens living at The Residences at Thomas Circle will hold a singalong at the same time as Trump’s speech, in a gathering they’ve dubbed, ‘Make Americans Friends Again.’”
Watchdog groups will also be looking closely at what Trump says. Experts say if it turns into a rally it could violate federal law.
