Trump posted on Truth Social that he would not allow the weather to cancel the evening's events. "I don't care if it's 2:00 O'Clock in the morning, or in one hour from now," he wrote, according to CBS News.
The Secret Service announced that its checkpoints would resume operations and that anyone who had been evacuated would face a full round of screening before being allowed back onto the grounds. Earlier in the evening, CBS News had reported — citing two law enforcement sources — that Secret Service personnel had laid the magnetometers on their sides as a precaution against damage from the incoming storm.
Disruptions extended along much of the East Coast. In Philadelphia, the One Philly: Unity Concert for America on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway was halted due to an approaching severe thunderstorm, city officials announced, according to CBS News. At the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular, a severe thunderstorm warning sent Massachusetts State Police scrambling to move the crowd into a Storrow Drive tunnel for roughly 25 minutes, after which the all-clear allowed attendees to return outside, according to USA Today.
Celebrations in western cities proceeded without weather-related interruptions. Nashville hosted a star-studded concert across multiple downtown stages, and a benefit show at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum featured performances by Chris Stapleton and others, according to USA Today.
Pyrotecnico, the company behind the Washington display, had engineered what organizers called a record-setting show — more than 850,000 shells set to detonate over a span of roughly 40 minutes, according to CBS News.
Update, July 5, 2026: The evacuation order for the National Mall area was lifted approximately two hours after it was issued. The fireworks display ultimately began seconds before midnight, extending the celebration into the early hours of July 5. (per BBC News)
