The USA is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

US President-a Donald Trump will mark the 250th anniversary of independence with a political rally on Saturday on the grounds of the National Mall in Washington, ending a weeks-long celebration that has been criticized as polarizing.

Across the US, Americans plan to celebrate the patriotic holiday with fireworks and parades. Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, will offer free cookies and a six-hour pop concert, while New York will host sailing ships from around the world.

In the capital, Trump will be the central face of the celebrations.

The president called his evening performance among the city’s many famous monuments “the most spectacular Trump rally ever”, accompanied by military flyovers and lavish fireworks.

Washington’s annual 4th of July celebration usually draws thousands of people. Visitors this year have to face increased security measures, possible storms and temperatures that could jump up to 38 degrees Celsius.

Among the groups coming to Washington is the nationalist organization Patriot Front. The rally announced on social media that it had arrived in the capital, and Reuters photographers saw hundreds of people dressed in Patriot Front gear riding the DC subway.

The organization, founded in 2017, is known for its aesthetics and carefully organized surprise demonstrations.

Past presidents have steered clear of celebrations, but Trump has blurred the line between official celebration and campaign-style politics.

The nonpartisan body created in 2016 to organize the 250th anniversary has been largely overlooked by the Trump administration’s Freedom 250 group, which has cordoned off much of the 1.5-mile-long National Mall, a green space complex in downtown Washington, for a “Great American State Fair” with attractions like a Ferris wheel and an exhibition space for conservative groups and defense companies.

Several majority-Democratic states declined to send representatives, and many performers scheduled to perform pulled out, citing concerns that the event was partisan. Thousands of people attended Trump’s inaugural rally, but since then attendance has been modest.

Among other events organized by the Freedom 250 group is a religious gathering with mostly conservative Christian speakers and several sporting events, including mixed martial arts on the grounds of the White House for Trump’s 80th birthday. An IndyCar race in Washington is scheduled for August.

Freedom 250 has also sponsored “Freedom Trucks,” which critics say portray a largely religious version of American history and gloss over issues like slavery and racial injustice.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that a majority of Americans, including three-quarters of Democrats and half of Republicans, believe events celebrating the 250th anniversary have become too political.

Ahead of the 250th anniversary celebrations, Trump has sought to reshape large areas of the capital, but with mixed results. Many of the fountains and monuments have been renovated, but the much-vaunted $15 million renovation of the Reflecting Pool has been plagued by problems, and now security cameras and soldiers monitor peeling paint and algae-covered water.

America celebrates, the heat disrupted the program

In Keystone, South Dakota, there is one of the most recognizable symbols of America – a monumental sculpture carved into the granite rock of Mount Rushmore. The monument depicts the eighteen-meter-tall heads of four American presidents, chosen to represent the first hundred and fifty years of American history. George Washington symbolizes the creation of a state, Thomas Jefferson its spread, Theodore Roosevelt economic development and strengthening of American influence in the world a Abraham Lincoln preservation of unity.

Right at the foot of the carved rocks of the Black Hills the president Donald Trump last night he gave a speech to open the weekend celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.

– Nevertheless, as we approach the magnificent anniversary, we are once again witnessing an attack on our American identity. After we fought and won the Cold War against the threat of communism, the communist threat is growing stronger in our country again, and from newcomers who embrace ideas completely opposite to our way of life and our great success, said US President Donald Trump.

Trump called on Americans to defend the freedoms that the country’s founders envisioned two hundred and fifty years ago from what he claims is a new communist threat that he sees in some progressive Democrats.

– The citizens of the United States of America will quickly defeat communism. We will not allow them to waste our time with their games. We will send them into exile, said Trump.

The central celebration takes place tonight in Washington, but the extreme heat disrupted part of the program. The day’s parade was canceled and the Great American Fair temporarily closed after temperatures reached forty degrees. Visitors are directed to air-conditioned museums and cooling centers.

– We were right at the entrance when they stopped letting people in. We thought we would come back when it got a little colder, but then they started taking people outside, the visitor said Michelle Plummer.

This year’s celebration was conceived as the biggest national spectacle since the bicentennial in 1976. Tonight, the largest fireworks display in the capital’s history has been announced over Washington, with flyovers by military aircraft.

At the same time, New York harbor hosts the largest international gathering of historic sailing ships and warships in American history.

– First of all, freedom. We are free to do what we want and be who we want. Nobody can tell us what to do, said the Pennsylvania resident Steven de Trafford.

But the big anniversary is being celebrated in an atmosphere of deep political divisions and new international crises. Conflicts in the Middle East are testing American foreign policy and diplomatic power. The war with Iran has once again shown how sensitive global security and the world economy remain to events in that region, and that absolute victory in modern asymmetric warfare no longer exists.

– The United States is a superpower. They are asking for something and we should give something – otherwise they will blow up our officials, he says Fattah Bayazratni veteran.

Meanwhile, one-week funeral ceremonies began in Tehran for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the end of February in the first airstrike in the war between the United States, Israel and Iran. As America celebrates a quarter of a millennium of its independence, its greatest Middle Eastern rival is seeing off the man who for more than three decades represented Iranian politics and defied the US.