President Donald Trump will headline U.S. Independence Day celebrations on Saturday with a speech and a show that seek to place him at the center of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Trump has made no secret of his joy at presiding over the July 4 festivities, portraying the timing as a side benefit of winning a second term starting in 2025 — even as the Republican falsely claims he also won the 2020 election against Democrat Joe Biden.

Celebrations will be held across the U.S. to mark the occasion, which commemorates the 1776 adoption of the Declaration of Independence that separated the American colonies from Great Britain. Americans traditionally celebrate with fireworks, picnics and red, white and blue memorabilia.

Trump will make remarks at 9:45 pm on the National Mall before the start of a massive fireworks display, but heat may reduce the crowd size. Organizers canceled a parade in Washington on Saturday because of the high temperatures but evening events were expected to proceed unaffected.

Trump visited South Dakota on Friday, where he used a speech at the Mount Rushmore monument to warn of the threat of communism after recent primary wins by Democratic Socialist candidates. Striking a political tone ahead of elections in November, he said Republicans “can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms.”

The July 4 holiday, and Trump’s role in it, coincides with political polarization among Americans and low approval ratings for the president. His efforts to remake Washington with pet projects — a White House ballroom, a triumphal arch and a revamped John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — contrast with voters’ concerns about the economy.

U.S. hiring slowed sharply in June, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Thursday. The economy is expected to feature prominently in campaigns for the midterm elections in November, when Democrats are seeking to wrest control of Congress from Trump’s Republicans by focusing on the rise in the cost of living.

Vice President JD Vance kicked off official celebrations on Saturday with remarks in New York as a parade of ships graced the harbor in honor of the holiday. Vance, who has been critical of U.S. allies, expressed gratitude to scores of countries that sent their own naval vessels for the event.

The vice president used his remarks to knock those whom he said focused on the nation’s faults rather than its successes. “Reject the view of your nation that sees only its sins, but not its grace and its greatness,” he said. “Everything that we have done as a country, we have done together, not as citizens divided against each other, but as a common people, working towards a common future.”

The president, who organized a parade of tanks and other military equipment in downtown Washington last year, has sought to supercharge July 4 festivities with a slew of military flyovers as well as the fireworks display, which organizers say will be the largest in history. He pledged to give a long evening speech despite the sweltering heat.

Trump has injected himself into the July 4 commemorations in multiple ways, including touting a U.S.passport with his picture emblazoned on one of the pages.

On Wednesday, he linked himself to the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt during a ceremony for the 26th president’s library in North Dakota and on Friday gave his speech at Mount Rushmore, a monument with the edifices of four historic U.S. presidents that he has mused about wanting to join.

Last week, he turned what was initially scheduled to be an opening performance for the so-called Great American State Fair on the National Mall into a political rally for his Make America Great Again movement after multiple artists pulled out. The fair closed for several hours on Friday because of the high temperatures.

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