Temperatures near 100 degrees, a massive security apparatus and potentially dangerous plumes of smoke from a record-breaking fireworks display are escalating concerns around the July Fourth celebration on the National Mall — an event that President Donald Trump has already politicized as “the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all.”

With Saturday’s celebration days away, the production company building out the physical apparatus for the country’s marquee 250th anniversary event was still actively recruiting professional help for crowd management assistance on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the company’s planning, who, like others interviewed for this piece, was granted anonymity to address a topic they were not authorized to speak about. Multiple sources familiar with the production of the event expressed concern to MS NOW that the same organizers behind The Great American State Fair, which has drawn markedly small crowds, are also producing the July Fourth celebration, an event that happens annually but usually without the security measures required because of the president’s attendance.

An organizer working on the build-out pushed back on skepticism about the event.

“I don’t think it’s too ambitious — we’ve built it knowing reality,” the organizer said.

“I think he’s going to be pleased,” they continued, referring to the president.

The organizer also pointed to the success of attracting several thousand soccer fans to Wednesday night’s U.S. match watch party on the same National Mall grounds set up by the group.

The forecast will not help. The high on Saturday is expected to reach 100 degrees, with a heat index well above that and a chance of thunderstorms at night. And because of a planned speech by Trump that is expected to last some 45 minutes, the fireworks show has been pushed until 11 p.m. — nearly two hours later than usual.

“It’s going to be approximately 107 degrees out, and I’m going to go and I’m gonna make a really long speech just to show that I can do anything,” Trump said in North Dakota on Thursday.

The heat also raises a logistical problem: making sure there’s enough water for the crowd. The organizer working on the build-out told MS NOW that more than 500,000 water bottles are already on hand, with hundreds of thousands more arriving before Saturday, along with “huge, huge, huge tents that are air conditioned.”

The show itself, as the president declared on Truth Social, will also be “HUGE.” More than 850,000 fireworks will launch into the sky above Washington from 10 sites over roughly 40 minutes, set to American pop songs like Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” and Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.” By comparison, the typical July 4 show in Washington lasts about 20 minutes and reportedly includes some 20,000 pyrotechnics. Pyrotecnico, the company co-producing Saturday’s display, used 9,800 fireworks in this year’s Superbowl production. 

“The plan is for it to be the greatest fireworks display ever displayed in the United States and the world, so you know it’s massive,” Pyrotecnico CEO Stephen Vitale said. “We’re going to be breaking a world record.”

But air quality experts said the record-breaking scale, combined with the weather, creates a perfect storm for vulnerable populations like the elderly and people with asthma. Organizers typically rely on wind to push the smoke plume away from the city. But the extreme heat and cloudy, rainy conditions could potentially create an “inversion” effect, trapping smoke close to ground.

“It’s going to be a disaster,” said Dr. Anthony Wexler, director of the Air Quality Research Center at UC Davis. “It’s going to create a lot of particles in the atmosphere, and those particles are going to contain lots of toxic metals.” 

Some of that particulate in the air will likely be 2.5 micrometers or less in width, Wexler said, allowing it to more easily enter the lungs and cause serious illness in both the short and long term.

“We’re talking about elderly, we’re talking about people with asthma,” Wexler said. “This stuff could be really bad for them.” 

He encouraged vulnerable populations to leave the city, or, if leaving is not an option, staying indoors and running a HEPA filter. Those who are outside should wear masks, experts have advised.

Vitale said weather is always taken into account in the planning of these events. When MS NOW asked about air quality considerations, Vitale said, “We’re not concerned about that.”

The Freedom 250 website notes that air quality will decline and encourages attendees to take precautions. 

The health risks are only one of the questions hanging over Saturday. Another is whether the operation staging it is up to the task.

The production company, Event Strategies Inc., has deep ties to the president: Individuals associated with the firm have organized and produced Trump rallies since he launched his first campaign in 2015, working closely with the Secret Service to secure massive outdoor spaces — including the Ellipse for the Jan. 6, 2021, rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol. It also worked on last month’s UFC fight on the South Lawn, and it coordinated last summer’s military parade on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Two sources familiar with the production team told MS NOW that it “knows about staging for rallies” but that the expansive footprint required for the typical crowd that comes to the National Mall for the annual July Fourth celebration will pose security challenges. 

A separate source familiar with Secret Service planning for major events involving the president said the footprint for Saturday’s rally would need to exceed even that of major political conventions.

The event will cap a yearlong commemoration of the country’s semiquincentennial, originally meant to be led by America250, a bipartisan commission Congress founded and funded in 2016. But over the last year, an outside organization, Freedom 250, led by Trump political allies, took over planning for the most prominent events — pushing overtly pro-Trump political messaging and hiring Event Strategies. 

Trump has described Saturday as one of the most monumental events of his presidency, placing pressure on his aides and teasing high turnout. 

That optimism about crowd size is far from universal. The weather and security could dissuade attendance. Trump’s June speech on the Mall drew small attendance and upset the president, who is ever the “optics guy,” a person close to the White House told MS NOW. 

“He’s a producer,” the person said. “From this tiniest thing of a pipe and drape was out of place, or a speaker didn’t work, or there was an echo, he is a critic of his stage. He’s not going to just critique the act, but the audience and the reception.”

Staff, though, “can’t create a crowd,” said the person familiar with the thinking inside the White House.

“The one vulnerability is, everything that we do, Trump is the focal point,” they said.

The post ‘It’s going to be a disaster’: Concerns mount about Trump’s supersized July Fourth appeared first on MS NOW.

From MS Now.