[1] The event was also protested by Indigenous people who see Mount Rushmore as a symbol of settler colonialism and dispute ownership of the site as part of the Black Hills land claim.

In 2010, the National Park Service stopped fireworks displays because of concerns about wildfires and potential contamination of drinking water.

Trump's remarks at the event covered his deploying of law enforcement to protect monuments, repeatedly expressed his support for God, largely ignored the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and included a reiteration to build the border wall.

In an article done by Steven Groves he reveals that Trump “joked at a campaign rally about getting enshrined alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

And while it was Noem, a Republican, who pushed for a return of fireworks on the eve of Independence Day, Trump committed to visiting South Dakota for the celebration”.

[6][8] Doane Robinson proposed the project to increase tourism in the Black Hills and hired sculptor Gutzon Borglum to create a sculpture that honored “the West’s greatest heroes, both Native Americans, and pioneers”.

[9] Further protests by Indigenous people occurred at Mount Rushmore in 1970 and 1971, when activists set up camp on top of the memorial for several months demanding return of their land.

Firefighters called in crews from other states to help a few days prior to the firework event, as a blaze consumed approximately 150 acres about 6 miles south of Mount Rushmore.

[11] On the day of the firework celebration, NDN Collective organized a protest of about 200 people that used vehicles as barriers and blocked the road to the park for about three hours, stating individuals were trespassing on sovereign lands of the Great Sioux Nation.

[6] Videos of the protest went viral, as did the “#landback” hashtag and NDN collective's demands for the closing of Mount Rushmore and return of the Black Hills to the Lakota people.

"[13] After gaining national attention, tens of thousands of advocates raised money for bail funds and petitioned on behalf of the land defenders.

[16] The event had a large crowd in attendance who did not social distance and were not required to wear masks, despite recommendations to do so by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other science experts, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.