For many years a Fourth of July celebration in Washington DC has been NON-PARTISAN celebration of our nation. But in 2019 Trump hijacked it and made it about him and his partisan supporters: https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2019/06/trump-to-turn-dcs-annual-nonpartisan-july-4-celebration-into-event-centered-on-him-and-his-supporters-report/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=298&recip_id=22838&list_id=2
In early July the Washington Post and other reliable sources reported that Trump has forced the National Parks Service (which is already underfunded and unable to keep up with necessary maintenance) to divert $2.5 million that had been intended for improving parks, so the NPS can pay for costs related to Trump’s Fourth of July event on the National Mall. The entire extravaganza will be very expensive, but the Trump regime has consistently refused to disclose how much taxpayers will have to pay for the public event, whose real purpose is to stroke Trump’s ego and support his 2020 re-election campaign. Besides NPS’s unfunded costs, taxpayers will also pay for extensive military hoopla, including tanks (which will likely damage Washington DC’s streets), military flyovers, Air Force One, and an extended pyrotechnics display.
Trump’s Fourth of July Salute to Himself will feature ‘military’ parade and flyovers: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/6/20/1866138/-Trump-s-Fourth-of-July-Salute-to-Himself-will-feature-military-parade-and-flyovers?detail=emaildkre
A savvy non-profit organization, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW, www.citizensforethics.org) reported on July 1, 2019: “President Trump is making the Fourth of July celebration on the National Mall all about him. He’s giving a speech at the Lincoln Memorial, and having an Air Force One flyover. No modern president has so blatantly co-opted a federal holiday (and our country’s birthday, no less) before—and for good reason.” He sharply increased the rates at his Washington DC hotel, and has rented every room, but other hotels that are not politically connected have not done that.
Maureen Dowd’s article in the New York Times lambasted Trump’s narcissistic event: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/08/opinion/sunday/maureen-dowd-trump-july-4th.html
Instead of a traditional nationwide celebration of our nation’s independence, Trump has hijacked this and made himself PERSONALLY in charge of the details so he could design it CELEBRATE HIM instead of the nation’s independence. He is turning it into a giant Trump campaign rally for his 2020 re-election. This is what autocrats do. See this article from May 28, 2019: https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/its-official-trump-is-going-to-try-to-make-the-fourth-of-july-all-about-himself/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=297&recip_id=22838&list_id=2