President Donald Trump’s record-breaking fireworks show slated for Saturday night has a growing number of critics worried about the safety of Washington, D.C. residents, with one commentator offering a particularly disturbing prediction as to how the event could take a turn for the worse.
Trump announced the fireworks show in June, and proudly touted that it would be “the LARGEST FIREWORKS SHOW IN HISTORY” in a post on social media. Around 850,000 fireworks are expected to be launched during the show, scheduled to begin around 11 p.m. Saturday night.
A handful of internal National Park Service documents obtained this week by The Washington Post, however, revealed that the fireworks show is expected to cause “dangerous pollution” and “very unhealthy conditions” around the National Mall, conditions so severe that several critics feared the event could turn into a disaster.
“They'll probably accidentally set the White House on fire,” predicted Nathan Robinson, editor-in-chief of Current Affairs and political commentator, in a social media post on X Saturday.
The air quality at the fireworks show is expected to be so dire that the Park Service advised that attendees “wear an N95 mask when outdoors,” and that they should “remain indoors as much as possible during and after the show.”
“Air quality is already bad due to the heat, this is gonna be brutal,” predicted Amanda Carpenter, writer and editor at Protect Democracy and former writer for The Bulwark and CNN contributor, in a social media post on X Saturday.
Democratic communications strategist Josh Dorner predicted it was unlikely that attendees would adhere to the Park Service’s warning, further exacerbating the danger present at the event.
“The air is going to be SO BAD because of the enormous quantity of fireworks to be set off tonight in DC that officials cautioned people nearby to wear an N95 mask, which I am guessing approximately no one will do,” Dorner wrote Saturday in a social media post on X.
And Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center of Economic & Policy Research, argued that a show of such magnitude was simply beyond Trump’s ability to oversee safely.
“This is waaaay too complicated for an 80-year-old man suffering from dementia to understand,” Baker wrote Saturday in a social media post on X.
they'll probably accidentally set the white house on fire https://t.co/feXssTlI2i
— Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson) July 4, 2026