Trump says he overruled recommendation to cancel July 4 event on the National Mall

Administration Trump says he overruled recommendation to cancel July 4 event on the National Mall Comments: by Ashleigh Fields - 07/06/26 7:54 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Ashleigh Fields - 07/06/26 7:54 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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President Trump on Sunday said he overruled a recommendation to cancel a July 4 event on the National Mall that was threatened by severe weather.

“The Crowd at 7:05 in the evening was 422,000 people,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post.

“All were forced to leave because of the weather, the event was cancelled, and everyone was gone because of lightning. When I heard that it was cancelled, I immediately overturned that decision, and waited a while for people to come back,” he added.

Trump also said 150,000 people returned to hear his address and watch the firework show, which he said was “even more spectacular evening than it would have been as normalized.”

“It showed work under pressure. Congratulations to the Secret Service and Law Enforcement on being able to get so many people back into the Arena in such rapid fashion,” the president wrote in the Sunday post.

Earlier on Independence Day, patrons visiting the Great American State Fair experienced high temperatures and 34 participants were hospitalized for heat exhaustion, according to The Washington Post.

In an effort to shield participants from the heat, the Secret Service pushed back the event’s start time, Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi told the outlet.

“There’s never an event when you have to move more than 100,000 people on short notice, that it doesn’t cause some type of bump in the road,” he told the Post.

By early evening, National Guard soldiers were helping event planners prepare for an oncoming storm by flipping over tables and escorting visitors and journalists to nearby museums for shelter.

The president vowed that his address would go on, with one official saying he pledged to speak as late as 2:00 a.m. EDT.

Trump was scheduled to provide a “Salute to America” address at 9:45 p.m. EDT, but severe weather and thunderstorms caused a delay, pushing the start time back to 11 p.m. EDT.

A large-scale firework show took place shortly after, coinciding with lightning strikes in the night sky.

“It was an amazing evening made even more spectacular by the fact that, immediately after the Great Fireworks ended, the rains came down, full blast,” Trump wrote in his Sunday Truth Social post.

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