US President Donald Trump kicked off America’s 250th birthday weekend on Friday with a trip to Mount Rushmore, the granite mountain in South Dakota where the heads of four American presidents are carved.
Many suspect he would like to see his own face carved in rock at Mount Rushmore.
The trip is a prelude to the big event celebrating the anniversary on Saturday night in Washington, when Trump will address a crowd on the National Mall ahead of a massive fireworks show.
On the eve of Independence Day, Trump will give a speech beneath the giant granite heads of four of his legendary predecessors at the national monument in South Dakota.
What is Trump’s plan for Mount Rushmore?
Trump has in the past openly mused about having his own profile carved on the mountain to join those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and . “Sounds like a good idea to me,” he said in a tweet in 2020 during his first term.
But there has been no serious move toward fulfilling this dream in his second term. Instead, Trump has tried to cement his legacy through a series of high-profile projects to leave a lasting imprint on the nation’s capital.
These include building a new ballroom next to the White House, planning a monumental arch and renovating some of Washington’s most iconic monuments and public spaces.
Record-breaking fireworks
At , Trump will give a keynote address and watch a fireworks display amid concerns about fire hazards due to drought conditions in the area.
The “Freedom250” project has hired Pennsylvania-based Pyrotecnico to launch more than 850,000 fireworks shells across 10 sites around the Lincoln Memorial and Potomac River, starting at 10:30 pm and lasting 40 minutes.
That is around 40,000 more than the current , set in Bocaue, Philippines, in 2016, and roughly 50 times as many as Washington’s usual annual show.
“Freedom250” has billed it as the “unforgettable” capstone to a day of performances, flyovers, and aerial acrobatics displays at the National Mall, claiming it will draw hundreds of thousands of visitors and calling it a generational event.
They haven’t, however, disclosed the bill for the affair and have not responded to a request for the sum.
What do critics say?
Reintroducing fireworks to the Black Hills, which Trump and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem first did in 2020, continues to draw sharp opposition from environmental groups, who warn that the dry, forested area is at extreme risk of devastating wildfires.
“First, let me say, I like fireworks – I think they’re fun,” Russell Dickerson, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of Maryland, told AFP, but said the number in question was “frightening.”
“In my professional opinion, it’s probably ill-advised to try to set off 850,000 fireworks… on a hot, stagnant, already polluted day. I’m not going down to the Mall, and I certainly would not bring my grandchildren there.”
The biggest concern is fine particulate matter, he explained — particles 2.5 micrometres or smaller that can penetrate deep into the lungs, enter the bloodstream, and even cross the blood-brain barrier.
Erica Walker, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Brown University School of Public Health, said the harms of fireworks need to be weighed against the joy they bring, drawing a distinction between ongoing sources of noise and pollution and those confined to a single day.
“As an American who has ancestors here who descended from slavery, Independence Day for me is incredibly relevant,” she said. “I think for me those are the sounds of independence… It’s also the sound of freedom, without trying to sound all corny.”
A 2016 US government study found perchlorate, an oxidising agent used in fireworks, had made its way into groundwater and surface water around Mount Rushmore National Memorial, which holds annual July 4 shows.
(With agency inputs)
