According to the U.S. Parks Service, 7,000 fireworks are typically used for pyrotechnics displays in our nation’s capital. For the MAGA-aligned “Freedom 250” Independence Day celebration, Trump insisted on 850,000 fireworks — 120 times the normal amount.
Ahead of the event, Kisha Davis, chief health officer of nearby Montgomery County, Md., told CNN, “The air quality today (July 4) is like running a marathon while smoking a cigarette,” adding that the planned firework display would make matters worse.
J. Basil Dannebohm
On July 5, residents of Washington, D.C., experienced the worst air quality of any major city in the world, prompting city officials to issue a Code Red Air Quality Alert, warning the public may experience health issues. Crews spent the day using long-handled tools and nets to scoop debris and soot from the now-infamous reflecting pool.
None of this should come as a surprise.
Scientists have provided ample research-based evidence that soot and heavy metal pollution spikes severely in the wake of pyrotechnic shows. The Washington Post obtained internal documents that warned the National Parks Service that 850,000 fireworks would spell trouble.
The document stated that people should “avoid prolonged exposure” to the fine particulate matter pollution and recommended wearing N-95 masks when outdoors.
Attendees of the Freedom 250 event received no warning that wearing a protective mask was strongly advised.
Earlier in the day, however, several hundred men wearing masks marched behind a processional crucifix and a banner reading, “Reclaim America.”
They were members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front. Some carried upside down American flags and others carried Confederate flags as they injected a display of MAGA extremism into America’s 250th birthday celebration. The majority of the group members have ties to the Traditional Roman Catholic (Latin Mass) movement, while many others are recent converts to Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
It’s unknown whether the Nazis nouveau stuck around for Trump’s speech, which was pushed back to 11 p.m. They probably had to wake up early for Sunday liturgy. After all, nothing says “Onward Christian Soldiers” quite like shouting fascist battle cries while parading around Washington.
Members of the Patriot Front, an American white supremacist group, assemble outside Union Station to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Olivier Douliery/Abaca/Sipa USA via AP Images)
Terry Gordon, a semi-retired research professor at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, shared a study with Politico about the air and water quality around New York City that he and 12 students conducted on July 4, 2023.
Gordon told Politico two of their air samplers saw fine particulate matter — soot and smoke particles so small they can be inhaled into lung tissue and enter the bloodstream — jump from a range of 10 to 15 micrograms per cubic meter to more than 1,000 micrograms. A third site shot past 3,000 micrograms. The national standard over a 24-hour period, set by the EPA, is 35 micrograms.
Although pollution from fireworks usually blows away or settles into water and soil within a day, current drought conditions in the D.C. area mean firework pollutants may linger longer in the Potomac, potentially killing amphibians and juvenile fish. The fireworks also pose a threat to ospreys, which are currently in the midst of breeding season. The Chesapeake Bay region, which includes Washington, D.C., contains 20% of the world’s ospreys.
CNN and Politico both asked the Environmental Protection Agency for comments on the potential health and environmental risks of the July 4 celebration. Two separate spokespersons began their statements with the same phrase: “Fireworks are awesome.”
As you might imagine, given the current idiocracy, those statements didn’t say a word about the health or environmental risks associated with Trump’s latest vulgar display of overcompensation and self-aggrandizement.
Although Donald Trump hasn’t turn water into wine, he has managed to turn it into green, duck-killing sludge. And while he never would feed 5,000 hungry followers, he would gladly pollute the very air they breathe. Yet to his followers, including “devout” fascists who marched in the sweltering D.C. heat, Mango Messiah remains infallible.
J. Basil Dannebohm is a writer, speaker, consultant and former state legislator who divides his time between Kansas and Washington, D.C.