President Trump is scheduled to start speaking at Mount Rushmore’s Independence Day celebration on Friday night at 10:10 p.m., according to the White House.
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The White House says Trump is the first president since George H. W. Bush in 1991 to attend the celebration.
Hours before the event, protesters blocked a road leading to the monument. Authorities worked to move the demonstrators, mostly Native Americans protesting that South Dakota’s Black Hills were taken from the Lakota people against treaty agreements. About 15 protesters were arrested after missing a police-imposed deadline to leave.
Trump is expected to denounce the protesters he says are trying to “tear down” the nation’s history.