President Donald Trump stated on Sunday that he overruled a recommendation to cancel the July 4 event on the National Mall due to severe weather threats. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said, “The Crowd at 7:05 in the evening was 422,000 people,” but all attendees were forced to leave because of lightning and the event was initially cancelled.
Trump added that upon hearing of the cancellation, he immediately reversed the decision and waited for people to return. He claimed that 150,000 people came back to hear his address and watch the fireworks, which he described as “even more spectacular evening than it would have been as normalized.”
He also congratulated the Secret Service and law enforcement for quickly facilitating the return of attendees to the event area.
Earlier on Independence Day, the Great American State Fair experienced high temperatures, resulting in 34 hospitalizations for heat exhaustion. To protect participants from the heat, the Secret Service pushed back the event’s start time, according to spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi.
The large-scale fireworks show coincided with lightning strikes, and Trump noted on Truth Social that “immediately after the Great Fireworks ended, the rains came down, full blast.”
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