Trump To Visit Mount Rushmore For July 4th Fireworks

The Week reports:

President Trump will visit Mount Rushmore on July 3 to see the fireworks display he helped facilitate, even as uncertainty over the pandemic stretches into the summer. Earlier this week, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) confirmed the Independence Day celebration would go forward. “We’re excited that this will be happening at Mount Rushmore,” Noem said, as reported by CNN. “We’ve been working on this for quite some time.”

Trump had first floated the idea of holding “your first big fireworks display at Mount Rushmore” back in January, although firework shows have been held at the monument in the past only to be discontinued in 2009 over environmental concerns. Trump has waved off such worries by saying “what can burn? It’s stone.” Noem is notably “one of a handful of governors not to issue an order shuttering non-essential businesses during the ongoing epidemic,” reports Newsweek.

The New York Post reports:

According to then-Rep. Kristi Noem, in 2018 Trump mused about having his likeness chiseled onto the monument.  “I said, ‘Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore,’” Noem said. “And he goes, ‘Do you know it’s my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?’”

She added: “I started laughing. He wasn’t laughing, so he was totally serious.” Asked last year whether his face should be on Mount Rushmore, Trump said: “If I answer that question, ‘Yes,’ I will end up with such bad publicity.”

NEW: Trump is going to Mount Rushmore on July 3rd to see fireworks and the 60-foot-high presidential sculptures.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) May 1, 2020