President Donald Trump enticed the masses with a "special evening" of tribute and fireworks staged with new U.S.

People wandered the National Mall in baking heat and took shade under the scattered trees while, not far away, music wafted from a party on the White House South Lawn.

To come: the "Salute for America" celebration with Trump's speech from the White House grounds, a military air show and a more ambitious fireworks display than has been seen in years.

The crowds on the Mall were strikingly thinner than the one gathered for last year's jammed celebration on the National Mall.

"POTUS said it would go away," Lee said of the pandemic, using an acronym for president of the United States.

"Masks, I think, are like a hoax." But she said she wore one inside the Trump International Hotel, where she stayed.

Another nurse, Zippy Watt from Riverside, Calif., came to see the air show and fireworks with her husband and their two daughters, one of whom lived in Washington.

She said her family was divided on Trump but she is "more of a Trump supporter.

Trump's guests were doctors, nurses, law enforcement officers and military members as well as officials from the administration, said Judd Deere, deputy White House press secretary.

Yet Trump continued to crave big crowds when it came to his events.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top fundraiser for the president and girlfriend of his eldest child, Donald Trump Jr., tested positive for the virus, Trump's campaign said late Friday.

military and pay tribute to American values, heroes and accomplishment, according to a Trump aide who was not authorized to comment by name.

Trump's endorsement of big gatherings at the National Mall and at Mount Rushmore came as many communities decided to scrap fireworks, parades and other holiday traditions in hopes of avoiding yet more surges in infection.