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Fireworks in DC could be in the works for Trump’s GOP nomination

A fireworks display on the National Mall could punctuate President Trump’s address to the Republican National Convention next week.

The Republican National Committee has filed a permit application with the National Park Service for a fireworks display at the Washington Monument on Thursday, Aug. 27, around 11:30 p.m.

The president is scheduled to deliver his speech accepting his party’s nomination that night, which would also be the last of the convention.

Despite protests from Democrats on using the White House as a political stump, Trump has said that he may speak from the South Lawn. The Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania, also on federal property, is an option for the location of his speech, Trump tweeted last Monday. 

The application, received by the Park Service Friday, Aug. 14, indicates that the fireworks display would last just five minutes.

It also advises that the event may attract “First Amendment demonstrators.”

The National Park Service has not decided whether to grant the permit.

National Museum of the American Latino to be housed in historic Smithsonian building

The Smithsonian Institution has decided to put the National Museum of the American Latino into an existing, historic building, rather than constructing a new one. The Smithsonian Board of Regents on Monday designated the Arts and Industries Building, a 145-year-old redbrick Victorian structure located between the Smithsonian Castle and the Hirshhorn Museum, as the permanent site of the National Museum of the American Latino, which Congress authorized in 2020. In 2022, the Smithsonian narrowed its survey for permanent locations for the National Museum of the American Latino and the American Women's History Museum to four locations near the National Mall on land owned by the National Park Service. The Arts and Industries Building, located at 900 Jefferson St. SW, was one of the four sites. New construction on National Park Service land would require congressional approval. However, since the Smithsonian already owns the Arts and Industries Building, the institution can place the National Museum of the American Latino in the existing building without additional legislation.
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