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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsInside the effort to build suspense -- and crowds -- for Trump's Fourth of July
By Juliet Eilperin, Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker and Dan Lamothe July 3 at 7:20 PM
As President Trumps appointees have worked doggedly to assemble the most ambitious and costly Fourth of July ceremony the nations capital has ever seen, they have been guided by one overriding principle: It cannot be a repeat of his 2017 inauguration.
The transformation of the Lincoln Memorials grounds into a made-for-TV setting, complete with a VIP seating section for donors and other political supporters, represents the culmination of a four-month-long effort to produce the military celebration the president has envisioned for nearly two years.
For a public gathering that is ostensibly targeting an audience of hundreds of millions of Americans, the display of weaponry, aircraft and pyrotechnics has been scripted primarily to satisfy an audience of one. By having Trump speak to a select audience, flanked by armored tactical vehicles, organizers hope he will avoid the prospect of facing a smaller crowd of the sort that gathered on the Mall for his swearing-in.
But the White House has also been scrambling in recent days to line up enough attendees, as Trumps aides fret that either thunderstorms or the traditional free concert on the other end of the Mall could diminish the crowd for Trumps 6:30 p.m. speech. The issue of crowd size has been a sore point with Trump since his inauguration, when far fewer people showed up compared with Barack Obamas 2009 inaugural ceremony and the president pressed National Park Service officials for nonexistent photographic evidence of a larger audience.
The administration has provided 5,000 tickets to the military, the Pentagon announced Wednesday. Trumps reelection campaign has handed passes out to allies, donors and trade associations from the American Bankers Association to the British Embassy, according to people familiar with the matter, while several fundraisers and operatives also were tasked to hand out tickets.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-effort-to-build-suspense--and-crowds--for-trumps-fourth-of-july/2019/07/03/10c2b00a-9da8-11e9-9ed4-c9089972ad5a_story.html
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)the US stands for ... death and destruction. Pathetic. Most powerful nation in the world with something like enough fire power to kill every living thing on earth over 50 times ... and this gross display. FFS, get a life tRump! Don't compensate for your inadequacies with this.
2naSalit
(86,842 posts)He has taken any pleasure out of the day that I might have enjoyed. In fact, I feel a bit nauseous.