Trump is expected at Mount Rushmore on Friday for an enormous fireworks display staged amid cautions about fire risk in the Black Hills National Forest. The show comes after the Trump administration suspended an 11-year ban on fireworks at the memorial in 2020. Trump is also scheduled to fly to South Dakota on a $400 million jet gifted by Qatar.
Trump’s Friday visit
The display appears to be largely for Trump’s benefit, and he is expected to attend. On Wednesday, before boarding for the plane’s first official flight, he said, “This was a gift from a country that’s treated us very well,” and, “Frankly, we couldn’t build a plane like this.” He also said, “You can low-key it. Or you can show it.”
Those comments came as the plane moved into service for presidential travel after a retrofitting that required a massive $320 million custom hangar at Joint Base Andrews. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent to upgrade the communications and security systems of the Boeing 747-8, which is expected to be used for about two years before the long-delayed jets ordered directly from Boeing arrive.
Black Hills fire cautions
The fireworks display is going forward despite cautions about fire risk in the Black Hills National Forest. That is the immediate operational concern for visitors and organizers at Mount Rushmore: a large pyrotechnic show in a forested area where wildfire risk has already been flagged.
Anna Kelly, the White House deputy press secretary, said, “There are no conflicts of interest.” The event now sits at the intersection of a presidential visit, a suspended fireworks ban, and a public safety warning tied to the surrounding forest. What happens on Friday will depend on whether the display can be carried out without worsening the very risk that prompted the cautions in the first place.
