President Donald Trump will kick off a weekend of celebrations for America’s 250th birthday with a speech at Mount Rushmore on Friday.
Trump is set to deliver remarks at the famed national monument at at 8:30 p.m. local time, 10:30 p.m. Eastern.
The Mount Rushmore festivities will include flyovers, performances by military bands and tributes to the Armed Services. It will culminate in a large fireworks display, the first fireworks show at the national memorial in years, according to the National Park Service.
Trump will fly to Keystone, South Dakota, on the newly retrofitted Air Force One 747, a gift from the Qatari royal family. The president used the jet for the first time earlier this week for a trip to North Dakota for the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.
Members of the crew make final preparations as they set up a stage at Mount Rushmore National Memorial for the Fourth of July fireworks display, where President Donald Trump is expected to appear, in Keystone, South Dakota, July 2, 2026.
Jane Ross/Reuters
Trump last spoke at Mount Rushmore in 2020, during his first term, at at time when Americans were grappling with the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump has previously mused about putting his likeness on the mountain where the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln are etched. After his 2020 speech there, he called it a “good idea.” But so far in his second term, there’s been no significant movement toward making that a reality.
Trump’s visit to Mount Rushmore comes ahead of a big event in Washington, D.C., for the Fourth of July.
The “Salute to America 250 Celebration & Fireworks” celebration begins Saturday at 7 p.m. in the nation’s capital. The president has teased a long speech to mark the occasion, which is being billed as the largest firework display ever held on the National Mall.
Trump has already called the event the “most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all.”
Festivities for the nation’s 250th anniversary are unfolding as extreme heat blankets much of the country. Trump, though, earlier this week said high temperatures wouldn’t stop him from making his remarks in Washington.
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