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President Donald Trump isn’t the only one struggling to throw a big Fourth of July bash for America’s 250th anniversary.
In cities and towns across the country, double-digit tariffs have jacked up the price of fireworks ahead of this weekend. While some local leaders are grinning and bearing the extra costs, others have canceled displays altogether.
Kyle Henke, director of parks and recreation for Kirkwood, Missouri, told The Independent that both tariffs and excitement around 250th celebrations helped double the price of the St. Louis suburb’s typical $25,000 fireworks show.
He estimated that the Trump administration’s tariffs on China, which exports most of the consumer fireworks used in the U.S., increased costs by up to 30 percent. Some fireworks have risen in price by 40 percent, according to industry insiders.
“We’re also getting a bigger show, which is costing quite a bit more than previous years, because they’re asking for it,” Henke said of the buzz from local leaders around America’s landmark birthday. “Not just an increase in the tariffs, but they wanted a bigger show, so I’m giving them a bigger show because of America 250.”
Usually, the city raises about half the funds to cover its fireworks show from private sponsors, but this time around community members and businesses kicked in about $45,000 of the show’s roughly $50,000 budget, Henke said.
“Fortunately for us, we have some very strong supporters in the community,” he said of the expanded show, which will boast a supersized grand finale.
Barrett Gray, who is helping plan Fourth of July celebrations in Deer Isle and Stonington, Maine, saw an even steeper increase in prices on fireworks, which cost about $15,000 this year.
“Our fireworks are doubling this year due to tariffs mostly,” he told The Independent. “We have the money for this year’s fireworks, but if we’re unable to raise more money, it will certainly affect what next year’s fireworks display looks like.”
The regional chamber of commerce had to tap its reserves to foot its share of the increased bill to keep the Independence Day spectacle alive in the scenic coastal area, which has about 3,500 full-time residents.
“I think the fireworks are a huge part of our Fourth of July festivities,” Gray added. “I would love to keep the tradition going. I’ve lived here all my life. I’m almost 50. It’s something that we always look forward to.”
Other small towns haven’t fared so well.
Faced with an influx of 250th anniversary-inspired orders, some fireworks vendors have turned away smaller customers.
"We do turn away people every year, however, this year it's been a little bit more than normal," Tyler Wheat, president of the Texas-based Illumination Fireworks, told Axios. "The amount of cities we have in Texas that do have large and middle-sized budgets, we have to put those as priority, because obviously we're a business, we have to make profit."
“The excitement around America's 250th is unlike anything we've seen in our six generations in this business,” Phil Grucci, CEO of Fireworks By Grucci, told The Independent in a statement, as his company prepares to anchor shows across the country, including a series of launches in Las Vegas that are expected to be the largest in the country.
“Americans have increased the size of their performances dramatically,” he added. “Everyone wants to mark this milestone in a meaningful way.”
For some towns, the costs of a fireworks show in this economic climate just couldn’t be justified.
Hinesberg, Vermont (population: 4,698), canceled its fireworks this year when its main vendor raised prices to a $20,000 minimum to compensate for higher import costs. Town leaders then decided against a fireworks show, as residents worried they would be on the hook for the increased price tag.
“Everybody’s disappointed,” Roger Kohn, a local attorney serving as grand marshal in the town’s Fourth of July parade, told The Independent. “They like to have fireworks on the Fourth. But people were very concerned about property taxes.”
Other areas were hit with more quotidian challenges ahead of the Fourth of July. St. Louis County, Missouri, scrapped its long-running JB Blast fireworks event because of budget concerns and difficulty raising enough sponsor dollars for the show, which typically costs the county about $46,000.
“It’s a very costly event to put on, regardless of tariffs,” county parks public information manager Alyssa Hui-Anderson told The Independent.
Meanwhile, one of multiple 250th anniversary-themed fireworks show planned above the Las Vegas Strip was temporarily postponed Saturday due to high winds, though the display went up the following night.
In this regard, event organizers are just like the president, whose Independence Day plans have faced one issue after another. His Great American State Fair on the National Mall in Washington has struggled to attract large crowds, while his Fourth of July-inspired renovation of the nearby Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has been marred with algae blooms and cracking construction materials. (Ironically, a planned fireworks launch site around the renovation has spared the president further embarrassment for now; chain-link fences now circle the Reflecting Pool.)
Kohn, the Vermont attorney, said he had other America-related concerns as the Fourth of July approaches.
“I’m very concerned about the divisiveness within the country at the present,” he said. “I think it’s most unfortunate. It’s hard to celebrate that from the celebration.”
It seems he’s not alone in feeling this way.
About a fifth of Americans don’t plan on celebrating the Fourth this year, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, and two-fifths doubt America will last another 250 years.
"I don't want to be at the same party with people feeling enthusiastic about where our country is going,” Betsy Halsey, a retired teacher from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, who disagrees with President Trump, told Reuters.
And depending on where that party takes place, there might not even be fireworks to offer a temporary distraction.
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