Park Service diverting $2.5 million for July Fourth
President pitches flyovers, fireworks, military show
WASHINGTON — The National Park Service is diverting nearly $2.5 million in entrance and recreation fees primarily intended to improve parks across the country to cover costs associated with President Donald Trump’s Independence Day celebration Thursday on the National Mall, according to two individuals familiar with the arrangement.
Trump administration officials have consistently refused to say how much taxpayers will have to pay for the expanded celebration on the National Mall this year, which the president has dubbed “Salute to America.” The two individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed the transfer of the Park Service funds Tuesday.
The diversion of the park fees represents just a fraction of the extra costs the government faces as a result the event, which also includes expansive displays of military hardware, flyovers by an array of jets including Air Force One, the deployment of tanks on the Mall and an extended pyrotechnics display. By comparison, according to former Park Service deputy director Denis Galvin, the entire Fourth of July celebration on the National Mall typically costs the agency about $2 million.
The White House is also distributing VIP tickets for Trump’s planned speech at the Lincoln Memorial to Republican donors and political appointees, prompting objections from Democratic lawmakers who argue the president has turned the annual celebration into a campaignlike event.
The Republican National Committee and Trump’s reelection campaign confirmed Tuesday that they had received passes they were handing out for the event.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, said in a phone interview. “No ticketed political event should be paid for with taxpayer dollars.”
The White House referred questions about the celebration to the Interior Department, which declined to comment.
Even as some critics questioned the White House’s handling of access to the Lincoln Memorial, officials from the Pentagon and Interior Departments were scrambling this week to transform Trump’s vision of an elaborate military and pyrotechnics display into reality.
Two Abrams tanks, two Bradley Fighting Vehicles and an M88 recovery vehicle sat on train tracks in the District of Columbia on Tuesday, destined for the National Mall. Administration officials were finalizing aspects of Thursday’s schedule, according to a senior White House official, including the plan to have one of the planes in Air Force One’s fleet zoom overhead as Trump takes the stage that night.
Separately, according to two individuals familiar with the matter, the White House is negotiating with Park Service officials over whether to project an image from the 1969 Apollo 11 moon mission onto the Washington Monument for the event. Typically the agency does not allow projected images on monuments or historic structures, on the grounds that they should be preserved in their original form.
By tapping entrance fees to cover the presidential event, Interior is siphoning money that is typically used to enhance the visitor experience either on the National Mall or at smaller parks across the country, on projects ranging from repairing roads and bridges to habitat restoration. The transfer accounts to nearly 5 percent of the funds that less-profitable parks tapped into last year for upgrades, according to budget documents.
Udall said Interior Secretary David Bernhardt had yet to respond to a request he and two other Senate Democrats made two weeks ago for a full accounting of how the event would be conducted and what it would cost.