Extreme weather disrupts America’s 250th birthday celebrations; Trump says he will speak again after the evacuation

WASHINGTON — Severe weather disrupted celebrations of the 250th anniversary of American independence on Saturday in several cities on the East Coast, including Washington, where storms caused the evacuation of the National Mall for about two hours. President Donald Trump said he would speak there again later Saturday evening.

Elsewhere, severe weather led to the cancellation of celebrations in Hartford, Connecticut, as well as Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Spectators of the fireworks and concert in Boston were asked to take shelter briefly before the events resumed. An evacuation was also ordered in Philadelphia. New York and Pittsburgh moved forward with the fireworks, but changed the time to accommodate weather changes.

Anticipation for the milestone holiday has been building for much of the year, providing Americans with an opportunity to reflect on their complicated history as settlers of an empire that became their own superpower. Organizers of the celebrations that had been planning for months had to adjust or cancel their activities altogether as much of the East Coast was sweltered by heat that was approaching and, in many cases, surpassing triple digits.

Heat defines the big weekend in many places

The disruptions were particularly severe in Washington, where signs at the Great American State Fair posted an alert shortly after 7 p.m. ET encouraging attendees to leave the area. Crowds gathered at museums, subway stations and federal buildings near the mall. At the Ronald Reagan Building and the International Trade Center, they waited on chairs and sat on the floor to cool off in the air conditioning.

“I’m not going to let a little rain stop our 250th anniversary,” Trump said in a social media post announcing his plans to deliver a speech, which is expected to begin around 11 p.m.

Crowds gathered in the area several hours before the evacuation. Tina Hale, 58, of Cohoes, New York, watched three of her grandchildren dip their hands in a pool of water near a museum. Hale pointed to the sky and urged them to look up as three military planes roared above the crowd.

“If that doesn’t make you proud to be American,” she said.

David Koshko, 42, and his wife, Jennifer Koskho, of Harrisburg, Pa., came to Washington for a baseball game but planned to stay for the city’s fireworks display. After cooking for hours in the heat during the Pittsburgh Pirates’ victory over the Washington Nationals, they took a break in the shade of an overpass near the National Mall to plan their next stop.

“Just to be part of the 250-year (anniversary) is an incredible thing,” said David Koshko, a commercial driver and Marine Corps Reserve veteran.

In Philadelphia, fireworks began at noon in the birthplace of the nation, near the site where the Declaration of Independence was adopted by delegates to the Second Continental Congress. Hundreds of visitors gathered at Independence Hall in sweltering heat to await celebrations coinciding with the France-Paraguay World Cup knockout match at Philadelphia Stadium, which began with the holiday commemorations.

“It’s a big party here,” Carlos Alban, who traveled to Philadelphia from Chicago to watch the game, said upon arriving at the stadium, adding that he spotted a fan in the parking lot dressed as one of the founding fathers.

About 45 minutes before another World Cup match in Houston, a message from astronauts aboard the International Space Station announcing the party was broadcast into the stadium.

In New York, tall ships, with their masts, rigging and white sails silhouetted against a blue sky, paraded around the Statue of Liberty and up the Hudson River, recalling the fanfare around America’s 200th birthday in 1976.

The 43 ships were followed by a display of air power with a stealth bomber and the Navy’s Blue Angels. The Patrouille de France, the acrobatic teams of the French Air Force, flew over New York Harbor with their red, white and blue streaks, evoking images of the American flag.

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“We got up early and biked about a mile over here to come see the scene,” said Oona Moore, a resident of Jersey City, New Jersey, who attended the New York festivities. “We saw the tall ships and the planes, you know, all kinds of military planes. I’ve never seen it so close and in the sky at the same time.”

At Mount Vernon, to George Washington, people took the oath of allegiance to become American citizens. They stood with their eyes closed and their hands on their hearts for the national anthem.

An anxious nation prepares to celebrate

Trump spoke Saturday with world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, both of whom praised the United States as it engages in war. The president has also heard in recent days from King Charles III of Great Britain and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In the United States, the celebrations are taking place against the backdrop of a deep division in this election year that has been widening for years, visible in everything from political expression to cultural norms to age-old questions about race, class and immigration.

At Mount Rushmore on Friday, Trump spoke of communism as a “deadly threat to American freedom,” with the Republican president saying it was more dangerous than World War or 9/11.

Without naming Trump, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat who is also a democratic socialist and who recently supported several elected congressional candidates in their primaries, appeared to reference Trump during a speech Friday.

“These ideals on which our nation was built are strong enough to withstand any authoritarian regime, but only if we achieve them,” he said.

Vice President JD Vance said small but loud voices would speak on America’s birthday about its imperfections rather than its greatness.

“They will tell you America is just another country, where the weak fight the strong,” Vance said aboard the USS Kearsarge in New York Harbor.

© 2026 Versant Media, LLC

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