On July 3, 2026, President Trump will stand in front of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt — carved sixty feet tall into the Black Hills of South Dakota — and deliver a presidential address as fireworks explode over Mount Rushmore for the nation's 250th birthday.
The last time he did this, half of Washington had a nervous breakdown.
The celebration, organized by Freedom 250, was announced on June 25 and will feature military bands from all six branches of the Armed Forces, drill demonstrations, aviation flyovers, and a fireworks finale over Mount Rushmore and the surrounding Black Hills. Daytime programming includes family events, educational exhibits, and presidential reenactors..
The semiquincentennial — that's a word nobody uses but everyone should — marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence. And the man who fought through two impeachments, four indictments, and an multiple assassination attempts gets to celebrate it standing underneath the granite faces of the men who built the country.
For context, the fireworks at Rushmore were a flashpoint in 2020. Trump held a July 4th event there that drew immediate opposition. Environmental groups claimed the pyrotechnics would damage the memorial. Native American activists blocked access roads. Media outlets ran breathless coverage suggesting the whole thing was reckless, dangerous, maybe even illegal. The fireworks were subsequently blocked for years.
Now they're back.
The opposition to Rushmore fireworks was never really about fire danger or environmental sensitivity. It was about who was standing at the podium. A sitting president celebrating Independence Day at a national monument dedicated to the founders was, somehow, controversial — but only when that president was Donald Trump.
Governor Rhoden has been vocal about welcoming the event back to South Dakota, and the state's tourism infrastructure through Travel South Dakota is gearing up for what's expected to be one of the largest gatherings in the Black Hills in years. The evening program alone — military bands, flyovers, fireworks against that backdrop — is the kind of thing other countries spend billions trying to manufacture for national pride.
We get it carved into a mountain in South Dakota, and we almost lost it because some people thought fireworks were an environmental hazard but only on the specific nights a Republican president wanted to light them.
The 250th anniversary of American independence will be celebrated at the most American landmark in America, with the most American president since Reagan standing in front of it. The fireworks will go off. The left will write op-eds about why celebrating the founding is problematic.
And sixty feet of granite won't flinch.