President Donald Trump is scheduled to lead a pre-Independence Day celebration at Mount Rushmore on July 3, 2026, marking America's 250th anniversary. This event will feature fireworks, military bands, flyovers, and tributes to the Armed Services, culminating in a speech by Trump. It will be the first fireworks display at the national memorial since 2020, an event Trump also attended during his first term.
The celebration, hosted by Freedom 250 in collaboration with the administration, will take place on the eve of the nation's 250th birthday. Trump will deliver remarks described as a historic address commemorating the anniversary and outlining the future direction of America. Governors Larry Rhoden and Doug Burgum are expected to welcome Trump.
The event requires tickets, which were distributed through a public lottery that concluded on April 12. Trump previously spoke at Mount Rushmore in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. He has also previously expressed that adding his likeness to the monument, alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, would be a "good idea," and legislation was introduced last year to that effect.
Indigenous groups had previously protested fireworks displays at Mount Rushmore, and the Biden administration had rejected subsequent requests for fireworks at the monument due to concerns about the "adverse effect to the traditional cultural landscape." Trump will arrive in Keystone, South Dakota, on a newly retrofitted Air Force One 747 donated by the Qatari royal family, which he recently used for a trip to North Dakota.
The fireworks display will illuminate the faces of the presidents on Mount Rushmore and the surrounding Black Hills, choreographed to patriotic music. The celebration is intended to be a powerful tribute to the courage, sacrifice, leadership, and vision that established the United States.
