Donald Trump’s ambassador to Belgium takes over a Brussels park Sunday for a high-profile bash to mark America’s 250th birthday — despite local pushback and official hurdles to his more spectacular plans.<\/p>\n
Original plans by US envoy Bill White involved fighter jet flyovers and a parachute drop for the independence anniversary event in the Cinquantenaire Park, in the heart of the city’s European district.<\/p>\n
As it turned out, Belgium’s mobility ministry did not allow the parachute drop — which it says would have required suspending air traffic to and from the capital on a peak holiday weekend.<\/p>\n
It did greenlight a flyover — but it is now set to feature “a historic aircraft” rather than combat jets, according to a draft schedule from the US embassy which also promised fireworks, a drone show and a country music festival.<\/p>\n
Still, ambassador White promised on X it would be an “unforgettable” evening, with NATO chief Mark Rutte and Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever among several thousand guests attending.<\/p>\n
White’s boss Trump has planned a series of spectacular celebrations around the July 4 anniversary — which he kicked off Wednesday with a rally-style speech in the US capital.<\/p>\n
American officials have been talking up the Brussels event since announcing it in April — when White promised AFP it would be “amazing, extraordinary, phenomenal” and “fantastic”.<\/p>\n
But the plans have rubbed some the wrong way.<\/p>\n
“The park is a peaceful place that must remain open to the public,” said Philippe De Boeck, head of a group representing locals and businesses that opposed public spaces being privatised for events that bring noise and generate waste.<\/p>\n
Others have raised environmental concerns over colonies of common swifts nesting in the park.<\/p>\n
To protect the birds from excessive noise, Brussels Environment ordered that speakers be positioned at a distance and directed away from nesting sites.<\/p>\n
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