The stifling heat settled like a soggy blanket over the week-long America250 celebrations in Washington, D.C. Extreme heat warnings kicked in on July 1; by Friday, the heat index hit 44.4 degrees Celsius (111.9 degrees Farenheit), and eleven people were taken to the hospital from the Great American State Fair. Seven required advanced life support. The fair shut down for the day, reopening around 5 p.m. It had only cooled slightly by then. Until the last minutes of the Fourth, everything that could go wrong did.
America250 was paralyzed by the competing concerns of heat and security. Military and law enforcement presence in the capital was at inauguration levels to prevent some lunatic or terrorist from taking advantage of the forecasted crowds; security protocols forbade food and metal drink containers on the fairgrounds and the National Mall. Lines at the water stations inside were long; food was prohibitively expensive ($22 for a burger). Over several days, I saw almost no lines at the fair entrance.
There were a few protestors. A couple of elderly folks in orange jumpsuits stood in front of the White House calling for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, and on Wednesday, I saw a man handcuffed in front of St. John’s (the ‘Church of Presidents’) on Lafayette Square, but both the Secret Service and the suspect were relaxed. A man in a Trump mask so stifling he had to take it off between photos paced in front of the barricades. Small clusters of tourists showed up steadily.
The sparse crowds trundled through DC streets as hot as blow-dryers, with wilted patriotic paraphernalia drooping from strollers and hair bows. Navy-blue semiquincentennial banners sagged from government buildings. Ice cream cart vendors did brisk business, with cold mist rising like smoke when they opened their coolers. The price of a small popsicle: Five dollars. The kids were bedraggled; everyone looked cooked.
Trump plastered his visage all over the capital. A giant poster hanging from the Department of Justice featured Trump’s face and the slogan ‘Make America SAFE Again.’ On the Department of the Interior, a Trump banner unsubtly paired with one of George Washington read ‘America First’ and ‘America’s First,’ respectively. On the Department of Labor facade, Trump was paired with Teddy Roosevelt: ‘American Workers First.’
Trump supporters have insisted that this is merely a patriotic America250 celebration (Fox News covered the backlash to the Dear Leader banners with “liberals melt down” headlines). But this sort of personal branding on federal buildings is historically unprecedented, and I saw them across the city already back in January. Trump has always branded his buildings. The Founders would have hated it.
When the Labor Department banner went up last summer, then-Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer toadied her heart out, telling Trump, “Mr. President, I invite you to see your big, beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor because you are really the transformational president of the American worker.” This flattery is more excruciating because he accepts it so shamelessly. On July 4, he posted an AI video with his face included on a golden Mt. Rushmore with a Trump voiceover saying, “I will be the greatest president for many, many years to come.”
The huge Independence Day parade scheduled for the morning of July 4 was cancelled due to another extreme heat warning. The Great American State Fair was cleared Saturday afternoon. I headed to Arlington with my family to get a good viewing spot for the fireworks, billed as the largest in history. The heat and fog-thick humidity were so bad that two firetrucks parked behind the Iwo Jima Memorial and blasted their hoses into the air so people could cool off. Dozens of children played in the spray.
The crowd built through the afternoon, roaring and applauding as the American empire put on a show of her best military hardware. Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, Ospreys, and other jets roared overhead, looping in formation; the sudden, silent appearance of Stealth bombers brought the crowd to its feet. Trump’s new Qatar-gifted Air Force One flew over, flanked by fighters. Then, storms moved in, the clouds lit up with lightning, and police intercoms blared at the crowd to evacuate the lawns. Thousands of people scuttled for parkades and overhangs; the National Mall was also evacuated.
The fireworks were scheduled for 10:30, but the weather pushed it back. Trump refused to cancel. Thousands had come for the big event; some had not been able to get back onto the Mall after the abrupt evacuation. At 11 p.m., the president arrived onstage to give his ‘Salute to America.’ It was classic Trump: he sounded bored when reading the lines crafted by speechwriters, he frequently inserted the phrase “like never before”, he bragged so assiduously that he sounded uncomfortably like the boasting builder of the Titanic.
But then he brought out the guests. 104-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor and veteran Ken Schubring saluted a flag salvaged from the sunken USS Arizona; 107-year-old D-Day veteran Arthur Rose saluted a D-Day flag; Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient Paris Davis saluted the flag that was draped over Abraham Lincoln’s coffin. Pat Finn and Rudy Meekins, veterans of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, were also honored, as was 101-year-old veteran Don Graves, who witnessed the iconic flag-raising on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi.
It was an extravaganza of American courage and greatness.
There were NASA astronauts, too, including Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and others from the Artemis II crew and Jack Schmitt of Apollo 17. Trump lauded Western icons Wyatt Earp, Davy Crockett, and Annie Oakley and welcomed the descendants of Buffalo Bill Cody and Francis Scott Key (the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner”). As heroes took the stage, Trump took aim at Communism. “Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America,” he said to cheers. “It’s like a cancer. You got to cut it out.”
At two minutes to midnight, a B-1 Lancer bomber streaked over the capital and the crowds at the Iwo Jima Memorial in full after-burner; the crowd surged, and the fireworks lit the sky. For forty straight minutes, the skies above the capital danced and roared, bathing the Marines who eternally strain to raise the flag over Iwo Jima in pink, red, and blue light.
As we watched, I thought of a story Woody Williams told me. Woody was the last surviving World War II Medal of Honor recipient before he died in 2022. He knew Don Graves; both were flamethrower operators during the Battle of Iwo Jima, and both saw the flag raised over the island. Over the years, they met at many reunions. Both had shared their stories many times. Graves is one of the last who remains.
When Woody met President Harry Truman, he was petrified. Then, Woody told me, Truman leaned in as he pinned the medal to the young soldier’s uniform. “I would rather have this medal than be president,” he said. That exchange—between the president of the most powerful nation on earth and a young farm boy who had shown “uncommon valor”—encapsulates everything that is great about America. It is those virtues, and the blessing of the Divine, that can give America another 250 years. May God grant it.
America at 250: Heat, Hype, and Heroes
Fireworks celebrating America’s 250th over Washington, D.C., are seen from behind the Marine Corps Memorial on July 5, 2026 in Arlington, VA.
Pete Marovich / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
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The stifling heat settled like a soggy blanket over the week-long America250 celebrations in Washington, D.C. Extreme heat warnings kicked in on July 1; by Friday, the heat index hit 44.4 degrees Celsius (111.9 degrees Farenheit), and eleven people were taken to the hospital from the Great American State Fair. Seven required advanced life support. The fair shut down for the day, reopening around 5 p.m. It had only cooled slightly by then. Until the last minutes of the Fourth, everything that could go wrong did.
America250 was paralyzed by the competing concerns of heat and security. Military and law enforcement presence in the capital was at inauguration levels to prevent some lunatic or terrorist from taking advantage of the forecasted crowds; security protocols forbade food and metal drink containers on the fairgrounds and the National Mall. Lines at the water stations inside were long; food was prohibitively expensive ($22 for a burger). Over several days, I saw almost no lines at the fair entrance.
There were a few protestors. A couple of elderly folks in orange jumpsuits stood in front of the White House calling for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, and on Wednesday, I saw a man handcuffed in front of St. John’s (the ‘Church of Presidents’) on Lafayette Square, but both the Secret Service and the suspect were relaxed. A man in a Trump mask so stifling he had to take it off between photos paced in front of the barricades. Small clusters of tourists showed up steadily.
The sparse crowds trundled through DC streets as hot as blow-dryers, with wilted patriotic paraphernalia drooping from strollers and hair bows. Navy-blue semiquincentennial banners sagged from government buildings. Ice cream cart vendors did brisk business, with cold mist rising like smoke when they opened their coolers. The price of a small popsicle: Five dollars. The kids were bedraggled; everyone looked cooked.
Trump plastered his visage all over the capital. A giant poster hanging from the Department of Justice featured Trump’s face and the slogan ‘Make America SAFE Again.’ On the Department of the Interior, a Trump banner unsubtly paired with one of George Washington read ‘America First’ and ‘America’s First,’ respectively. On the Department of Labor facade, Trump was paired with Teddy Roosevelt: ‘American Workers First.’
Trump supporters have insisted that this is merely a patriotic America250 celebration (Fox News covered the backlash to the Dear Leader banners with “liberals melt down” headlines). But this sort of personal branding on federal buildings is historically unprecedented, and I saw them across the city already back in January. Trump has always branded his buildings. The Founders would have hated it.
When the Labor Department banner went up last summer, then-Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer toadied her heart out, telling Trump, “Mr. President, I invite you to see your big, beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor because you are really the transformational president of the American worker.” This flattery is more excruciating because he accepts it so shamelessly. On July 4, he posted an AI video with his face included on a golden Mt. Rushmore with a Trump voiceover saying, “I will be the greatest president for many, many years to come.”
The huge Independence Day parade scheduled for the morning of July 4 was cancelled due to another extreme heat warning. The Great American State Fair was cleared Saturday afternoon. I headed to Arlington with my family to get a good viewing spot for the fireworks, billed as the largest in history. The heat and fog-thick humidity were so bad that two firetrucks parked behind the Iwo Jima Memorial and blasted their hoses into the air so people could cool off. Dozens of children played in the spray.
The crowd built through the afternoon, roaring and applauding as the American empire put on a show of her best military hardware. Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, Ospreys, and other jets roared overhead, looping in formation; the sudden, silent appearance of Stealth bombers brought the crowd to its feet. Trump’s new Qatar-gifted Air Force One flew over, flanked by fighters. Then, storms moved in, the clouds lit up with lightning, and police intercoms blared at the crowd to evacuate the lawns. Thousands of people scuttled for parkades and overhangs; the National Mall was also evacuated.
The fireworks were scheduled for 10:30, but the weather pushed it back. Trump refused to cancel. Thousands had come for the big event; some had not been able to get back onto the Mall after the abrupt evacuation. At 11 p.m., the president arrived onstage to give his ‘Salute to America.’ It was classic Trump: he sounded bored when reading the lines crafted by speechwriters, he frequently inserted the phrase “like never before”, he bragged so assiduously that he sounded uncomfortably like the boasting builder of the Titanic.
But then he brought out the guests. 104-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor and veteran Ken Schubring saluted a flag salvaged from the sunken USS Arizona; 107-year-old D-Day veteran Arthur Rose saluted a D-Day flag; Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient Paris Davis saluted the flag that was draped over Abraham Lincoln’s coffin. Pat Finn and Rudy Meekins, veterans of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, were also honored, as was 101-year-old veteran Don Graves, who witnessed the iconic flag-raising on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi.
It was an extravaganza of American courage and greatness.
There were NASA astronauts, too, including Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and others from the Artemis II crew and Jack Schmitt of Apollo 17. Trump lauded Western icons Wyatt Earp, Davy Crockett, and Annie Oakley and welcomed the descendants of Buffalo Bill Cody and Francis Scott Key (the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner”). As heroes took the stage, Trump took aim at Communism. “Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America,” he said to cheers. “It’s like a cancer. You got to cut it out.”
At two minutes to midnight, a B-1 Lancer bomber streaked over the capital and the crowds at the Iwo Jima Memorial in full after-burner; the crowd surged, and the fireworks lit the sky. For forty straight minutes, the skies above the capital danced and roared, bathing the Marines who eternally strain to raise the flag over Iwo Jima in pink, red, and blue light.
As we watched, I thought of a story Woody Williams told me. Woody was the last surviving World War II Medal of Honor recipient before he died in 2022. He knew Don Graves; both were flamethrower operators during the Battle of Iwo Jima, and both saw the flag raised over the island. Over the years, they met at many reunions. Both had shared their stories many times. Graves is one of the last who remains.
When Woody met President Harry Truman, he was petrified. Then, Woody told me, Truman leaned in as he pinned the medal to the young soldier’s uniform. “I would rather have this medal than be president,” he said. That exchange—between the president of the most powerful nation on earth and a young farm boy who had shown “uncommon valor”—encapsulates everything that is great about America. It is those virtues, and the blessing of the Divine, that can give America another 250 years. May God grant it.
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