Trump to speak at the Lincoln Memorial on Independence Day

Donald and Melania Trump.
(Image credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

It's not the military parade he yearns for, but President Trump will be able to put his own twist on Washington's 4th of July celebration.

D.C. city officials and U.S. Park Police confirmed on Wednesday that Trump plans on speaking from the Lincoln Memorial during Independence Day festivities. U.S. Park Police spokesman Sgt. Eduardo Delgado told The Washington Post the agency is working on a security plan, and still waiting for the Secret Service to share how long Trump will speak and when. "It's still kind of an evolving event," he said.

In February, Trump tweeted to "HOLD THE DATE!" because he was planning an event called "A Salute to America," involving a "major fireworks display, entertainment, and an address by your favorite President, me!" Presidents do not usually attend D.C.'s 4th of July event, and there are concerns Trump will inject his own brand of partisanship into the celebration.

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"It's about the worse holiday he could have chosen," D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) told the Post. "You never want to make events like this around a single person. This is the difference between the Soviet Union — the old Soviet Union — and the United States. Cults of personality are not how we operate in this country."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.