Trump refuses to cancel America 250 address despite storms, Mall evacuation

President Donald Trump said he will still deliver a July Fourth speech after severe weather prompted an evacuation of the National Mall earlier Saturday.

"I'm not going to let some rain stop our 250th," Trump said in a social media post.

Event organisers Freedom 250 said Trump plans to give his speech on the Mall at 11 pm followed by fireworks, and gates for the Salute to America event would reopen at 9:45 pm. 

Trump's plans to commemorate America's 250th anniversary of independence with a rally on the National Mall were complicated by severe storms that gathered near Washington, forcing event organisers to order an evacuation.

 

"Freedom 250 will share updates on programming and doors reopening," Freedom 250 spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said in a statement that encouraged participants to seek shelter at museums and federal buildings near the National Mall. 

Washington's metro system also said several of its underground stations were available for shelter.

Severe weather prompted the cancellation of celebrations in Hartford, Connecticut, along with Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Spectators at Boston's fireworks and concert were told to briefly seek shelter before events later resumed. Plans for fireworks were still moving forward in other cities such as New York, where tall ships passed the Statue of Liberty earlier in the day, recalling the fanfare around America's 200th anniversary in 1976.

Anticipation for the milestone holiday has been building for much of the year, serving as an opportunity for Americans to reflect on their complicated history as onetime colonists of an empire who became a superpower of their own.

Organisers of celebrations months in the making had to adjust or cancel activities entirely as much of the East Coast sweltered under heat that approached and in many cases surpassed triple digits.

Heat is defining the big weekend in many places

The disruption was particularly acute in Washington, where signs at the Great American State Fair posted an alert shortly after 7 pm ET encouraging participants to leave the area.

As the order to evacuate was played over loudspeakers on the National Mall, some people appeared to be standing in place, talking with those around them and not exiting the area, while others were walking toward exits. National Guard troops told people to leave.

The US Secret Service announced it had temporarily closed checkpoints to screen attendees ahead of Trump's speech, which was scheduled to begin around 10 pm ET. Military flyovers, which have become a staple of July Fourth celebrations in Washington recently, were also cancelled for the rest of the day.

Crowds were building in the area several hours before Trump's speech. Tina Hale, 58, of Cohoes, New York, watched three of her grandchildren children dip their hands into a pool of water near a museum. Hale pointed toward the sky and urged them to look up as three military jets roared above the crowd.

"If that doesn't make you proud to be an American," she said.

David Koshko, 42, and his wife, Jennifer Koskho, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, came to Washington for a baseball game but planned to stay for the city's fireworks show. After baking in the heat for hours during the Pittsburgh Pirates' win over the Washington Nationals, they took a break in the shade of an overpass near the National Mall to plot their next stop.

"Just to be a part of the 250 years (anniversary) is an amazing thing," said David Koshko, a commercial driver and veteran of the Marine Corps reserves.

In Philadelphia, fireworks began to crack as early as midday in the birthplace of the nation near the site where the Declaration of Independence was adopted by delegates to the Second Continental Congress.

Hundreds of visitors were gathering at Independence Hall in the sweltering heat to await the celebrations coinciding with the France-Paraguay World Cup knockout game at Philadelphia Stadium, which began with commemorations of the holiday.

"It's one big party in here," Carlos Alban, who travelled to Philadelphia from Chicago to watch the match, said as he arrived at the stadium, adding that he spotted a fan in the parking lot dressed as one of the Founding Fathers.

About 45 minutes before another World Cup match in Houston, a message from astronauts aboard the International Space Station noting the holiday was beamed into the stadium.

In New York, tall ships, with their masts, rigging and white sails outlined against a blue sky, made a procession around the Statue of Liberty and up the Hudson River.

The 43 ships were followed by a display of aerial might with a stealth bomber and the Navy's Blue Angels. Patrouille de France, the French Air Force's acrobatic teams, flew over New York Harbor with their red, white and blue trails, evoking images of the American flag.

"We got up early and just rode our bikes about a mile down here to come see the scene," said Oona Moore, a Jersey City, New Jersey, resident who took in the New York festivities. "We saw the tall ships and we saw the planes, you know, all different manner of military aircraft. I've never seen it so close and in the sky at the same time."  At George Washington's Mount Vernon, people took the Oath of Allegiance to become US citizens. They stood with eyes closed and hands over hearts for the national anthem.

An uneasy nation gets ready to celebrate

Trump spoke Saturday with world leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who both congratulated the US as they engage in a war. The president has also heard from Britain's King Charles III and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent days.

Inside the US, the celebrations are unfolding against the backdrop of a deep divide this election year that has been expanding for years, visible in everything from political expression to cultural norms to age-old questions over race, class and immigration.

At Mount Rushmore on Friday, Trump spoke of communism as a "mortal threat to American liberty" with the Republican president saying it was more dangerous than either World War or 9/11.

Without naming Trump, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat who is also a democratic socialist and recently backed several successful congressional candidates in their primaries, appeared to reference Trump during a speech Friday.

"Those ideals upon which our nation was built - they are strong enough to endure any authoritarian regime, but only if we reach for them," he said.

Vice President JD Vance said small but loud voices would speak on America's birthday about its imperfections instead of its greatness.

"They will tell you that America is just another country, where the weak struggle against the strong," Vance said speaking aboard the USS Kearsarge in New York Harbor.