President Trump announced his plans for a Fourth of July rally via Twitter this morning, urging people to “hold the date” of a long-established national holiday.
The president’s rally, titled “A Salute To America” seems indistinguishable to most Fourth of July Celebrations, and there is usually a Fourth of July event on the National Mall already in place that sounds akin to what the president is proposing. The only difference would be the President’s appearance. Or, as he put it, “your favorite President, me!”
President Trump is known, in part, for his rallies, which center on him speaking around the country to hyper partisan crowds. This sounds like it would wed his political rallies with the celebration of United States independence from England.
This is not the first time President Trump has discussed such an event, but the first time he has announced it in such clear language. He told reporters during a White House cabinet meeting in February that he intended to see a Fourth of July event in Washington.
“We’re thinking about doing on the Fourth of July or thereabouts a parade, a ‘Salute to America’ parade,” said Trump then. “It’ll be a, really a gathering as opposed to a parade, I guess you’d have to say. Perhaps at the Lincoln Memorial, we’re looking at sites, but we’re thinking about doing something which would become perhaps become a tradition, Salute to America, on July 4th or July 4th weekend, somewhere around that area.”
It is unclear what if any concrete moves to host such an event have taken place beyond the President’s initial tweet. The Mayor of Washington, D.C.’s office had not received any details from the White House when asked after the President’s initial mention of the event.
This follows scrapped plans to hold a massive military parade, fashioned after France’s Bastille Day event in Paris, that the president wanted to coincide with Veteran’s Day. Those plans were scrapped after reports surfaced that such a parade of military might would cost roughly $92 million to stage.
The move echoes an eerily-similar move by disgraced President Richard M. Nixon, who administration was behind a Fourth of July rally at the Lincoln Memorial in 1970. In that case, it was ‘Honor America Day.” The event ended with police tear-gassing rowdy anti-war protestors.
President Nixon resigned in 1974.
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license