Trump at Rushmore: Jets and fireworks, but masks optional

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — When President Donald Trump speaks at the Mount Rushmore national memorial before the first fireworks show there in years, he’ll stand before a crowd of thousands of people who won't be required to socially distance or wear masks despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Friday night's event, with 7,500 tickets issued, will feature a patriotic display at a monument known as “the Shrine of Democracy" in a swath of country largely loyal to Trump. But it has also sparked controversy and concern. Public health experts say the lack of social distancing and enforced mask wearing could lead to a surge in the disease, while the fireworks risk setting the surrounding forest ablaze.

Native American tribal leaders and activist groups have also spoken out against the memorial, saying it desecrates an area they consider sacred and that the mountains on which it is carved were wrongfully taken from them.

Event organizers said this week that space was so tight they had to strictly limit the number of journalists who could cover it. The 7,500 people who received tickets will be ushered into two seating areas: A group of about 3,000 will watch from an amphitheater and viewing decks near the base of the monument, while the rest will have to bring lawn chairs to watch the fireworks from a gravel parking lot outside the memorial grounds.

Many without tickets are expected to crowd into other areas around the monument where they can get a glimpse of the president and the fireworks. The pyrotechnics alone will run $350,000, with the state bearing the cost.

Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, a Trump ally who has largely avoided ordering restrictions during the pandemic, said this week that the event wouldn't require social distancing or masks, though masks will be available to anyone who wants one. She cast it as a...