APTOPIX Washington America 250 Extreme Weather Heat
Attendees rest in the shade shortly before the event was closed for the afternoon due to extreme heat on the National Mall, Friday, July 3, 2026, in Washington.
As featured on
President Donald Trump has ushered in the 250th anniversary of American independence with soaring rhetoric about American exceptionalism before veering into a darkly political speech with warnings about communism. Trump's speech Friday night at Mount Rushmore swerved from the typically apolitical, unifying speeches past presidents have delivered during high-profile Independence Day celebrations. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, delivered his own address that cast America as a nation of contradictions “working each day towards the perfection in which it was conceived.” The president’s speech capped an Independence Day eve that was otherwise most notable for a brutal heat wave the gripped much of the eastern portion of the country.
Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.