White House

Trump Delivers 28-Minute Mount Rushmore Address on Independence Day 2026

A presidential address at a federal monument on the nation's 250th anniversary carries both ceremonial and political weight heading into the midterm cycle.

The Congressional Times · July 4, 2026

President Donald Trump delivered a 28-minute address at Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota on July 4, 2026, according to Fox News reporting on the event. The speech was followed by a 23-minute fireworks display that incorporated projected quotes from past U.S. presidents onto the monument's face, per the same report.

Mount Rushmore is administered by the National Park Service, a bureau of the Department of the Interior. Any large-scale event at the monument, including fireworks displays, requires coordination with the NPS and, in some cases, environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act. The specific permitting records for this event have not been made public as of press time; those documents would be available through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of the Interior.

The 2026 appearance marks Trump's second Mount Rushmore Fourth of July address. Trump also held an event at the monument on July 3, 2020, during his first term. That 2020 event drew scrutiny from South Dakota tribal governments, including the Oglala Sioux Tribe, which issued a formal objection citing treaty rights to the Black Hills under the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, a federal treaty still recognized in U.S. law. Whether similar formal objections were filed ahead of the 2026 event is not confirmed in available public records.

The content of the 28-minute remarks, beyond Fox News characterizing them as featuring 'iconic words,' has not been entered into the Congressional Record, as a presidential address at a monument is not a joint session of Congress. A full transcript would be available through the White House Office of the Press Secretary or the Federal Register's Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, neither of which had published the text as of this report's filing.

What remains unknown: the total federal expenditure for the event, including NPS staffing, security coordination with the Secret Service, and the fireworks display contract. Federal contract awards above $10,000 are required to be disclosed on USASpending.gov; a search of that database for relevant awards had not returned a matching record at time of publication. The identity of the fireworks vendor and the dollar value of any contract are the specific data points that would resolve that question.

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