A divided US celebrates 250th birthday as heatwave bears down on East Coast

The 250th anniversary of American independence is colliding with a country gripped by deep political divisions and a heatwave bearing down on millions of people across multiple states as celebrations get underway across the United States on Saturday.

The date pays tribute to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, one of history's most celebrated articulations of democratic ambitions. US President Donald Trump, set to take a central role in festivities, plans to speak on the National Mall in Washington ahead of what's being billed as a historically enormous fireworks show that will rain down over the nation's capital.

The president was in South Dakota at Mount Rushmore on Friday, where he delivered a dark speech about what he described as the threat of communism in the US as the chiselled images of four of his most prominent predecessors loomed behind him.

Elsewhere, fireworks are scheduled to be set off Saturday over Navy Pier in Chicago and against the skyline of New York City, which also hosted a ball drop at midnight to usher in the holiday with the same fanfare as New Year's Eve. Bristol, Rhode Island, describes itself as home of the nation's oldest Independence Day celebrations dating to 1785.

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In Los Angeles, Queen Latifah will host a concert featuring performances by The Smashing Pumpkins and Chris Stapleton. Chaka Khan is billed as a special guest.

Anticipation for the milestone holiday has been building for much of the year, serving as an opportunity for Americans to reflect on their complicated history from far-flung settler colonists of an empire to a global superpower in its own right. Celebrations months in the making had to adjust or cancel activities entirely as much of the East Coast sweltered under a worsening heatwave.

In Washington, the Great American State Fair was closed for several hours Friday afternoon during the worst of the heat. The city's Independence Day parade scheduled for Saturday was cancelled.

To the chagrin of many on the East Coast, the weather was downright pleasant on the other side of the country. The Pacific Northwest enjoyed cool temperatures on Friday with a few light showers.

In the Seattle suburb of Issaquah, Megan Kurowski, 31, brought her two dogs to the dog park so they could get some exercise before she went to work. Kurowski said she was feeling positive about America’s 250th anniversary and was planning a possible paddleboard to watch the fireworks.

“Everyone’s just, from what it seems, been pretty excited about celebrating 250 years,” she said.

Other American pastimes are overlapping with the holiday.

More than a dozen Major League Baseball games are on the schedule for Saturday. The World Cup, being hosted in the US for the first time in 32 years, will have matches in Houston and Philadelphia on Saturday following a nail-biter overtime win by Argentina over Cape Verde on Friday outside Miami.

Pop culture enthusiasts can obsess over Taylor Swift's Friday wedding to American football player Travis Kelce at New York City's Madison Square Garden. And Madonna released her 15th studio album, a collection of dance tracks.

The celebrations are unfolding against the backdrop of a deep divide that has been expanding for years, visible in everything from political expression to cultural norms to age-old questions over race, class and immigration.

At Mount Rushmore on Friday, Trump spoke of communism as a "mortal threat to American liberty”.

“It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor or even 9/11,” the Republican president said.

Trump blamed the threat in part on "newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life", tying his anti-communist rhetoric to the anti-immigrant theme that fuelled his election and has been historically part of the criticism of communism in the US. He added that such newcomers needed to be expelled from the country.

Four progressive candidates, including three democratic socialists, won competitive Democratic primaries in New York City last week and in Colorado on Tuesday. Progressive candidates have also won contests in Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Trump last week called their victories “the greatest threat to our country since ⁠its founding".

Without naming Trump, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat who is also a democratic socialist and recently backed several successful congressional candidates in their primaries, appeared to reference Trump during a speech Friday.

“Those ideals upon which our nation was built – they are strong enough to endure any authoritarian regime, but only if we reach for them,” he said.

USA at 250: 'Zohran Mamdani 'represents the new emerging wing of the Democratic Party'

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To former Democratic president Bill Clinton, this anniversary milestone comes at a time of “renewed questions about America’s future and role in the world, and serious threats to our own institutions and to our democracy itself”. While critical of “the people in charge”, he said in a statement that “there is still nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what’s right with America”.

Ahead of the holiday, auto technician Joe Fuqua-Bejarano in Topeka, Kansas, sized up “what makes us awesome” as a people. It is clearly not the politics, in his view, but rather resilience.

“We’ve just all got to find unity somewhere, whether that’s in laughter or perseverance, and keep everybody cool,” he said from the fireworks stand where he is doing a booming business as a side hustle.

Jerry Chin of Newcastle, Washington, said he wasn’t aware that the US was celebrating its 250th anniversary and planned to stay low-key around the holiday. He and his wife generally skip the fireworks and instead stay home with their fearful dogs to keep them calm.

“America’s a great place," he said, “but there are some concerns”.

(FRANCE 24 with AP and Reuters)