Washington.- U.S. President Donald Trump thanked law enforcement officers this Sunday for ensuring security during the “spectacular” Independence Day eve celebration, where he delivered a delayed speech following a temporary evacuation due to bad weather.
“The crowd at 7:05 in the evening was 422,000 people. Everyone was forced to leave due to bad weather, the event was canceled and everyone left because of lightning,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network regarding the interruption of the celebration program on the National Mall in Washington.
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The president assured that he “immediately” annulled the decision to cancel the event and waited “a while for people to return.”
According to Trump, “incredibly, at least 150,000 people returned and it was an even more spectacular night than it would have been under normal circumstances,” he asserted while praising the “ability to work under pressure” of the agents, who were in charge of re-screening the attendees who re-entered the area after a two-hour suspension.
“Congratulations to the Secret Service and law enforcement for getting so many people back into the venue so quickly. It was an incredible evening, made even more spectacular by the fact that, just after the big fireworks display ended, the rain came down in full force,” he said.
On Saturday night and about an hour later than scheduled, the Republican delivered a speech before an audience composed mostly of his supporters, at an event in the style of a political rally in the vicinity of the Washington Monument to mark the country’s 250 years of Independence.
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The original program had to be shortened due to the delay caused by the evacuation. The appointment had already been modified due to the heat wave that is stifling much of the nation, which was joined by the risk of storms and lightning strikes that forced the temporary evacuation of the space.
The first lady, Melania Trump, accompanied her husband to the event, which was also attended by members of the Administration, including the Secretaries of State, Marco Rubio; of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, and of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin.
For this anniversary, Washington was illuminated with a historic fireworks display that featured some 850,000 shells, in the largest show of its kind in the capital’s history and with which the Trump Administration sought to break a world record.
