Trump at Rushmore: Fireworks return, but masks optional
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — When President Donald Trump speaks at the Mount Rushmore national memorial before the first fireworks show there in years, he’ll stand before a crowd of thousands of people who won’t be required to socially distance or wear masks despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Friday night’s event, with 7,500 tickets issued, will feature a patriotic display at a monument known as “the Shrine of Democracy” in a swath of country largely loyal to Trump. But it has also sparked controversy and concern.
Public health experts say the lack of social distancing and enforced mask wearing could lead to a surge in the disease, while the fireworks risk setting the surrounding forest ablaze. There has not been a fireworks display at Mount Rushmore since 2009 because a mountain pine beetle infestation had dried out trees near the memorial and in the forest surrounding it.
Native American tribal leaders and activist groups have also spoken out against the memorial, saying it desecrates an area they consider sacred and that the mountains on which it is carved were wrongfully taken from them.
Event organizers said this week that space was so tight they had to strictly limit the number of journalists who could cover it. The 7,500 who received tickets will be ushered into two seating areas: A group of 3,000 will watch from an amphitheater and viewing decks near the base of the monument, while the rest will have to bring lawn chairs to watch from a gravel parking lot outside the memorial grounds.
Many without tickets are expected to crowd into other areas around the monument where they can get a glimpse of the president and the fireworks.
On Saturday, Trump’s July Fourth celebration on the National Mall in the nation’s capital will feature one of the largest fireworks displays ever and as many as 300,000 face masks will be given away to those who want them — but, as with the Mount Rushmore event and despite health concerns from D.C.’s mayor, no one apparently will be required to wear them.
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt outlined a second year of military-focused events in the nation’s capital on July Fourth, including Defense Department flyovers for a “one-of-a-kind air show.”