July 4 Live Updates: America Celebrates Its 250th Birthday
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July 4, 2026, 5:43 p.m. ET
Campbell Robertson and Pooja Salhotra
Celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the United States’ independence kicked into full gear on Saturday, with parades, historical re-enactments and music at events in small towns and big cities from coast-to-coast.
Though it was muggy and miserably hot in many parts of the country, the day was marked with the usual American exuberance, with fighter jets, tall ships, parachutists and flag-festooned pick-up trucks.
The biggest festivities are still to come, including a speech by the president and a fireworks display in Washington that is promised to be the biggest in history.
Across the city of Philadelphia, bells started ringing at noon to mark the moment when the Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence, and re-enactors dressed as Minutemen marched on the grass of Independence Mall.
In New York, a flotilla of tall schooners and sloops sailed up the Hudson River, with one ship carrying an issue of The Boston Gazette from July 22, 1776, which reprinted the full text of the Declaration of Independence.
In Charlottesville, Va., 75 people from around the world became United States citizens during a naturalization ceremony at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home.
And in Los Angeles, hundreds were starting to show up at a park for an “Independence Day” party that is scheduled to go on all weekend.
On the East Coast, the day has been a scorcher, with triple digit temperatures up and down the seaboard. Washington D.C. has been particularly tropical, and whilemost events in the nation’s capital are expected to go on, the National Independence Day Parade was canceled because of the dangerous heat. The risk of thunderstorms in the capital is also growing, with forecasters warning of strong winds.
Still, people in Washington wearing every combination of red, white and blue were crowding into the security gates at the National Mall, trying to be on site for the night’s big event. The show will feature music from the Joint Armed Forces Orchestra anda “really long speech” by President Trump, followed at 10:30 p.m., or possibly later, by what the White House promises to be “the largest pyrotechnics display in the history of the world.”
Organizers plan to set off more than 850,000 fireworks over 40 minutes, an extravaganza that would be many, many times larger than past Independence Day fireworks displays. It would be so large that National Park Service officials believe it could leave “hazardous” pollution over downtown Washington for hours afterward.
With the day finally here, a country that is patriotic and polarized all at once will come together under illuminated night skies to commemorate a milestone birthday for the United States of America.
Here’s what we’re covering:
Parade of tall ships: Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York and Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey joined Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Governors Island to ring a welcoming bell as the first tall ships from around the world appeared. The purpose of the event, said Chris O’Brien, the president of Sail4th 250, was “to bring the allied nations together in a moment of unity.”
Pricey hotels: Some hotels in Washington were offering packages that cost up to $250,000 for a birds-eye view of the festivities along the Washington mall.
Fireworks cancellations: Some places have canceled firework displays, worried about the danger of sparking wildfires.
Heat: Dangerously high temperatures disrupted events planned up and down the East Coast, but that has not discouraged revelers from packing the streets for celebrations in Boston, Philadelphia and New York.
Across the pond: It was just another Saturday in Great Britain.
A timely discovery: Just in time for America’s big day, a retired insurance broker who was volunteering in the National Archives in London, found a previously unknown copy of the Declaration of Independence. It had been printed in July 1776.
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July 4, 2026, 5:40 p.m. ET
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Families with picnic lunches beneath Danish and American flags in Rebild Bakker, Denmark, on Saturday. Credit...Maya Tekeli/The New York Times
Michael Howard had been to Denmark six times before. But until Friday, he had never made it to the Danish town of Rebild, where every year for a century Danes and Americans alike have celebrated the United States’ Declaration of Independence.
Mr. Howard, a retired engineer, had traveled from Elk Horn, Iowa, a town of just 600 people founded by Danish immigrants, for what organizers in Rebild call the world’s largest Fourth of July celebration outside the United States.
“We’re here for the friendship,” Mr. Howard said.
This year, though, that party has been overshadowed by President Trump’s repeated calls for the United States to take over Greenland, a Danish territory. For the first time in the festival’s long history — it was founded by Danish Americans in 1912 — the organizers removed U.S. Embassy officials from the official program. The embassy declined to comment.
Still, the celebration had a very American cast. Across the heather-covered hills of the Rebild Bakker park on Saturday, families unpacked picnic lunches beneath Danish and American flags as children climbed in and out of vintage Mustangs, Chevrolets and Pontiacs.
And despite the friction between Danish and U.S. officials, hundreds of citizens from both countries filled the hills, many wearing stars-and-stripes bandannas, American flag T-shirts and Uncle Sam hats.
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Families with picnic lunches in Rebild Bakker, Denmark, on Saturday. Credit...Maya Tekeli/The New York Times
Not everyone came to celebrate.
Kiista Lyngdahl, a 40-year-old teacher from Nuuk, Greenland, was visiting her Danish family with her husband and their two daughters. Normally, they would have spent the Fourth of July in Rebild Bakker. Instead, she stood outside the entrance with a small group of protesters, whose banners and T-shirts read, “Yes to democracy, no to Trumpism,” and “Greenland is not for sale.”
“It used to be fun and cozy, where you met friends from different countries,” she said. “I don’t feel that anymore.”
As she walked away from the hills, a big band struck up on the stage below, where hundreds had gathered for the ceremony.
Just before it began, a gust of wind snapped the rope holding the American flag. It drifted down into the crowd. When the speeches began, only the Danish flag fluttered above the stage.
July 4, 2026, 5:01 p.m. ET
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Gov. Gavin Newsom of California in Sacramento in January. Mr. Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, has been a vocal critic of President Trump. Credit...Max Whittaker for The New York Times
Patriotism met partisanship as America celebrated its 250th birthday.
President Trump used July 4 to mock the Democratic Party and assail his political opponents as “evil,” while Democrats seen as potential 2028 presidential candidates responded with speeches that cast his presidency as a betrayal of American ideals.
“This is one man trying to do to our American self-government what no king and no foreign power has ever managed to do,” Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat considering a run for the White House, said of Mr. Trump. The governor’s speech focused heavily on the president’s 2020 election falsehoods and efforts to reshape election rules before the midterms.
Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, another potential 2028 Democratic contender, said that “the very premise of patriotism is under attack.” He did not mention Mr. Trump by name in the speech but repeatedly alluded to him.
For ambitious politicians in both parties, the holiday weekend offered an opportunity to outline mission statements for their brands of politics, while tying them to traditional notions of patriotism.
America’s 250th birthday came at a particularly polarized moment. Politicians have long used July 4 as a backdrop to make political appeals and engage with voters, but historians said Mr. Trump’s aggressively partisan and personalized approach to the holiday was unique.
Some Democratic-led states refused to participate in the Trump-backed Great American State Fair on the National Mall in Washington, another illustration of the stark divides in the country.
Former President Bill Clinton issued a statement saying that he was concerned about the “deep division” in the country. He argued that the Trump administration had brought the country “close to the edge” with its immigration crackdown and what he described as an “unconstitutional war” with Iran. He said he found hope in people lining up to vote.
Mr. Newsom argued in his speech, filmed in the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento and released Saturday afternoon, that Mr. Trump embodied the “very behaviors our founding fathers fought against.”
The governor said he was working with state lawmakers to create new safeguards blocking the seizure of ballots, accusing the president of “measuring how far he can go” to undermine elections and “shred” the Constitution.
In Georgia, the focus of many of Mr. Trump’s efforts to reverse the 2020 election, the F.B.I. is assigning investigative analysts to check records, and in California a Republican sheriff this year seized hundreds of thousands of ballots from a 2025 election. Mr. Trump has also made baseless claims about election fraud in the race to replace the term-limited Mr. Newsom.
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Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland at the U.S. Capitol in June. Mr. Moore repeatedly alluded to Mr. Trump in a July 4 speech in which he said “the very premise of patriotism is under attack.” Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
Mr. Moore, speaking to a roomful of military veterans at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, widened his focus beyond the electoral system.
The governor spoke of a “rewriting” of U.S. history under an administration that has banned books and purged records related to diversity and inclusion. He said the “politics of today feel like a grift.” And the governor, an Army veteran who has often criticized Mr. Trump over the Iran war, declared that “starting a war without a purpose is not patriotic” and that “ending a war without achievement is not victory.”
In an interview after the speech, Mr. Moore left little doubt that the president weighed heavily on him as he drafted his remarks. He said he wanted to offer a rebuttal to a strain of “small,” grievance-fueled nationalism that he said Mr. Trump exemplified.
“I wanted the country to remember how big this country is,” Mr. Moore said, urging Americans to embrace a form of patriotism centered on service rather than what he said was a nationalistic impulse to point “fingers at others.”
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Mr. Clinton’s statement or on the Democratic governors’ speeches. But as Mr. Moore was beginning his remarks, the president wrote on social media, “Has anyone ever seen a Happy Dumocrat?” Mr. Trump also mocked a pair of Democrats running in marquee Senate races.
A day earlier, Mr. Trump delivered a dark, partisan speech at Mount Rushmore, describing his political opponents as “godless” communists and saying that Republicans could only lose the midterm elections if they were “stupid and unwise.”
Communism, the president said, is the “enemy of July 4, 1776.” He has falsely suggested that democratic socialists who have won in a recent Democratic primary election are communists.
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President Trump spoke at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota on Friday, delivering partisan remarks seeking to portray Democrats as extreme. Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York, a rising leader on the left who endorsed three victorious self-described democratic socialists in recent House primaries in New York, also delivered a speech tied to Independence Day.
In remarks from City Hall on Friday, Mr. Mamdani, surrounded by recently naturalized immigrants, critiqued what he described as a blind form of patriotism that he said fails to grapple with the country’s flawed history and takes a mistaken view of what makes the country exceptional.
“We are told that America is exceptional because we are richer, stronger, more powerful than everyone else,” said Mr. Mamdani, a Ugandan-born immigrant. “The truth, my friends, is that America is exceptional because here nothing is fixed into place.”
On Saturday, Vice President JD Vance pushed back in a speech that appeared to be in direct dialogue with Mr. Mamdani’s. He criticized those who, he said, speak “obsessively not of our national greatness but of our national imperfections.” And he dismissed what he said was “zero-sum” thinking that pits the powerful against the powerless and that only finds pride in the defeats of the well-off.
“Reject the two-dimensional view of your fellow citizens and reject the two-dimensional view of your country,” Mr. Vance, who is considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, said aboard the U.S.S. Kearsarge in New York Harbor, within a few miles of where Mr. Mamdani spoke a day earlier. “Reject the view of your nation that sees only its sins, but not its grace and its greatness.”
Julian E. Zelizer, a Princeton history professor, said that politicians throughout American history have used Independence Day as an opportunity to articulate “what they stand for and what their parties stand for.”
Professor Zelizer said that the “the politicians who are smart” would find a way to acknowledge the country’s divisions and show “what they’re going to try to do to try to close them.”
Laurel Rosenhall contributed reporting.
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July 4, 2026, 4:28 p.m. ET
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The scene outside the National Archives on Saturday. The major broadcast networks are concentrating on events marking the July 4th holiday. Credit...Alex Kent/The New York Times
The major broadcast networks are preparing to emphasize Americana and fireworks in Saturday’s prime-time hours — and to steer clear, for the most part, of President Trump’s July 4 address from the National Mall.
Fox News is the lone major channel planning substantial live coverage of the speech. It will also be covering events around the country marking America’s 250th birthday and broadcasting from the main stage on the National Mall with a variety of hosts, including Bret Baier, Harris Faulkner and Sean Hannity.
Mr. Trump is expected to speak at around 9:45 p.m., Eastern, before the start of a fireworks display on the National Mall.
“It is going to be approximately 107 degrees out, and I’m going to go and I’m going to make a really long speech just to show that I can do anything,” Mr. Trump said earlier this week in an appearance in Medora, N.D.
CBS will broadcast “The Great American Block Party 250,” starting at 8 p.m., with the hosts Tony Dokoupil, the CBS Evening News anchor, and Nischelle Turner of Entertainment Tonight.
ABC will pursue a similar strategy, airing “Nashville’s Star-Spangled Bash,” an Independence Day celebration with the radio and TV personality Ryan Seacrest, from 8 to 11 p.m. Both CBS and ABC plan to cover Mr. Trump’s speech in streaming packages on their websites. The networks often air brief snippets of the president’s speech on such occasions. Neither network plans post-speech analysis.
NBC will air the two-hour “Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Show,” starting at 8 p.m.
Mark Feldstein, a professor of broadcast journalism at the University of Maryland, said that large entertainment packages geared toward anniversaries are “what television does best and likes to do.” A speech by Mr. Trump, on the other hand, presents a less predictable source of programming.
“Trump is not reliable,” Professor Feldstein said, though he noted that Mr. Trump’s speeches sometimes include newsworthy statements. “If he’s threatening to go long on his rambles,” Professor Feldstein said, “that’s pretty bad television.”
Cable news will be standing by. MS Now will have reporters on the National Mall and will present coverage as events warrant. CNN will provide coverage from Boston, New York and the National Mall for much of Saturday, with anchors including Anderson Cooper, Dana Bash and Sara Sidner.
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July 4, 2026, 3:31 p.m. ET
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Silverton, Colo., one of many towns in the state forced to cancel their Fourth of July fireworks celebrations, in September. Credit...Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
Most years on the Fourth of July, scores of people in the small alpine town of Silverton, Colo., line up along its winding roads, fill its parking lots with lawn chairs and peer up at the night sky, hoping to see the community’s yearly marquee event: a firework show.
For a town of less than 1,000 residents, the fireworks show is a high point, capping off a week of old-school American events to celebrate the country’s birthday, including block parties, bull rides, picnics and parades.
But this year, there will be no show.
As the United States gears up for its 250th anniversary, wildfires that have been tearing across western states have forced some local governments to rethink celebration plans.
“Fireworks are canceled for all of us, quite frankly,” said DeAnne Gallegos, a spokeswoman for San Juan County, which encompasses the town.
Wildfire season in the United States is off to an early and intense start: Firefighters are battling infernos in California, Arizona, New Mexico and more western states. On Sunday, three died in a blaze on the Utah-Colorado border.
After a warm winter and severe droughts, the landscape out west is highly flammable, and full of dry grass, brush and trees. Extreme heat and heavy winds, expected this Fourth of July, could help fires spread rapidly.
In 2024, fireworks started nearly 30,000 outdoor fires, including wildfires, dumpster fires and others, the National Fire Protection Association has estimated.Each year, the organization records a spike in wildfires on July 4 and 5, said Michele Steinberg, director of the N.F.P.A.’s wildfire division.
That’s because a firework can “ignite anything flammable around it” if it hits the ground burning or sends sparks flying, Ms. Steinberg said.
Some wildfire-prone cities moved away from fireworks years ago. Since 2023, Salt Lake City has instead held drone shows, a spokesman for the city said, flying hundreds of synchronized, illuminated drones in patterns above parks. Park City, Utah, and Aspen, Colo., do the same.
This year, the severely hot and dry weather has prompted new changes. In Utah, Gov. Spencer Cox hastemporarily restricted fireworks statewide, allowing municipalities to designate specific areas for their use. From Nebraska to Nevada, a host of local authorities have altered their plans.
“People really need to abide by those orders,” said Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association. “This is not the time to celebrate with fireworks when the conditions don’t warrant it.”
Fireworks have long been a staple of the holiday in Silverton, where the show has not been canceled since the pandemic, Ms. Gallegos said. In the meantime, at least one nearby town, citing the risk of wildfires, has made the switch to a drone show. In Silverton, that “went over like a lead balloon,” she said.
But this year, canceling was “the most prudent decision,” as the region battles an ongoing drought and resources stretch thin, Ms. Gallegos said. Local authorities are already battling the Gold Mountain fire, burning in nearby Ouray County.
The municipality of Ouray has also canceled its fireworks and water fights, as well as another tradition involving water sprayed from fire trucks, its mayor said.
“It would be disrespectful to have water fights on Main Street when there’s a wildfire burning with smoke in sight,” said the mayor, Michael Underwood.
Other places have adopted more extreme measures. Across the state, Colorado Springs canceled or postponed seven firework shows as a large wildfire burns about an hour south. Alliance, a city in western Nebraska, has restricted the sale and use of fireworks within city limits.
Residents of Silverton are honoring two anniversaries this year: their county’s 150th and the country’s 250th. Still, “there are so many more ways to celebrate community than fireworks,” Ms. Gallegos said.
“That has been what is our biggest takeaway.”
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July 4, 2026, 3:13 p.m. ET
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A tugboat sails alongside the Oosterschelde, a Dutch three-masted topsail schooner, in New York Harbor on Saturday. Credit...Juan Arredondo for The New York Times
As the tall ships sailed grandly into New York Harbor, the little red-and-black tugboat stayed off to the side, largely unnoticed. It would swoop in only if there was trouble.
The Marjorie B. McAllister was one of 15 tugboats assigned to work the Sail4th 250 tall ships parade on the Fourth of July. The tugboats were stationed all along the route, from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge up to the George Washington Bridge.
The job of the Marjorie tug, hovering just off Governors Island, was to watch and wait. Other tugboats were waiting at the end of the route to turn around the tall ships so they could sail back down the Hudson River and dock at their assigned berths.
“It’s a lot going on, but that’s what we’re here for — it’s exciting,” said Capt. Doug Boarman, 32, from the wheelhouse of the Marjorie tug.
He had an unobstructed view of the tall ships with their white sails billowing in the wind as they passed by the Statue of Liberty and then right in front of the tugboat. “Definitely not something you see every day,” he said.
Captain Boarman kept an eye on a computer screen next to the steering controls, which showed the ships moving in a line, at about six knots, in a maritime tracking system.
McAllister Towing, which operates tugboats with distinctive red-and-white exhaust stacks, has been preparing for the parade for more than six months. “This is a long time planning,” said Steven Kress, the chief operating officer.
Mr. Kress usually deploys about a dozen tugboats in the harbor and brought in three more tugboats from Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Rhode Island just for the parade.
Aboard the Marjorie tugboat, Captain Boarman said he had never seen so much traffic on the water. Overhead, helicopters cruised by with an American flag in tow and the Blue Angels flew by in formation.
After the parade, the Marjorie tugboat would head over to a pier just below the Brooklyn Bridge to help several ships dock, including the N.R.P. Sagres from Portugal.
The Marjorie’s crew had placed gray canvas tarps along the tugboat to drop over the side and cover its rubber tires, which act as fenders, when it pushes in the tall ships.
“That just prevents leaving any marks on the ships,” said Jess Yeomans, a mate-in-training. “A lot of their hulls are white.”
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July 4, 2026, 2:37 p.m. ET
Jackson Landers spent the morning at Monticello, with 75 immigrants who are now citizens.
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There were 36 people made United States citizens on July 4 at Monticello in Charlottesville, Va. Credit...Kirsten Luce for The New York Times
They came from 36 countries across the globe. From Algeria. From Ireland. From Zambia. And they came from places in between, all to become citizens of the United States at Monticello, the former home of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence.
There, in Charlottesville, Va., 75 immigrants were sworn in as new U.S. citizens amid a celebration and many speeches.
For Debee Arvind Bouch, 23, the day was nine years in the making, ever since she first arrived here from India.
“I wanted citizenship because this is a land of opportunities,” Ms. Bouch said, “and there’s nowhere else I’d rather call home.”
“It’s going to definitely open a lot of doors for me, whether it be through my career, whether it be the places I go, my voice is going to be heard,” she said. “I’m also excited to vote and be a change in this world.”
Ms. Bouch said she was pleased with the ceremony, with those who spoke and with the thousands of people who chose to spend America’s 250th birthday at Monticello applauding as she and other immigrants became newly minted citizens.
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Credit...Kirsten Luce for The New York Times
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Credit...Kirsten Luce for The New York Times
“Oh, it’s more than I’ve expected,” she said. “This is a lot of people, 4,000 people in this place gives me chills, and I’m really, really excited and proud to have all these people cheering me on and welcoming me into the country.”
The festivities began with a drum corps of teenagers dressed in Revolutionary-era uniforms. The national anthem was played on a mid-19th-century banjo. And Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia delivered the keynote address, while a costumed Thomas Jefferson stand-in closed out the morning ceremony.
Political references were few among a multitude of speeches that focused on unity, patriotism and shared American values.
Carly Fiorina, former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard and 2016 candidate for U.S. president, drew applause from the crowd with a mention of “not kings” when describing what the founding fathers rejected.
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At a naturalization ceremony, thousands showed up to celebrate 36 people who became United States citizens. Credit...Kirsten Luce for The New York Times
When Ms. Bouch first arrived in the country, there were pros and cons, she said.
“Everyone talked fast, they sure did,” she said, noting that it took her a while to get up to speed. “I loved that they had pizzas everywhere, that it was so common to have pizzas!”
“I love living here, Ms. Bouch said. “I love Charlottesville. Absolutely.”
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