South Dakota's Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration 2020 was a fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore held on July 3, 2020, the day before Independence Day. It was notable for featuring the first and only use of fireworks at the site since 2008 and for being held amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. President Donald Trump spoke at the event, with other politicians and notable names including South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Host of Entertainment Tonight Mary Hart, First Lady Melania Trump and Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr. in attendance. Background Fireworks displays were regularly held at Mount Rushmore between 1998 and 2009. In 2010, the National Park Service stopped fireworks displays because of concerns about wildfires and potential contamination of drinking water. Though plans for it had been proposed, in an effort to reduce endangering the relationships with the Lakota, as well as reduce the risk of wildfire, there will not be a Fourth of July fireworks event in 2022. Speeches The event included remarks by Mary Hart and Governor Noem. Trump's remarks at the event covered his deploying of law enforcement to protect monuments, repeatedly expressed his support for God, largely ignored the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and included a reiteration to build the border wall. The speech, as described by Matthew Rowley, is all about 'the power of positive history'—by focusing on what made America great, Americans will be moved to greatness; by focusing on failure, Americans will become harsh, judgmental and intolerant. Although the George Floyd protests form the backdrop to Trump's words, the President nowhere mentions police brutality. 'In other words', writes Rowley, Trump seems to argue that 'America is great because it removed the knee from the slave's neck, not wicked because it knelt over the slave for centuries'. Then-U.S. president Trump had been known to share an affinity with Mount Rushmore, even telling South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem that it is a dream of his to have his own face carved onto the monument. In an article done by Steven Groves he reveals that Trump “joked at a campaign rally about getting enshrined alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. And while it was Noem, a Republican, who pushed for a return of fireworks on the eve of Independence Day, Trump committed to visiting South Dakota for the celebration”. The Lakota Nation and Mount Rushmore The original inhabitants of