Verified source report

Crowds pack into Washington's National Mall for prayer rally

President Donald Trump was expected to address the gathering, which got underway as a light rain fell, in a video message. Other top Republicans, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., were also on the schedule as part of the celebrations this year marking 250 years of U.S. independence.

Crowds pack into Washington's National Mall for prayer rally
Source image associated with the linked report from PBS News. Image selected from source feed metadata and displayed with attribution and link back; VINI does not copy the image into local storage unless rights are cleared.Credit: Image via PBS News · Source-hosted image; rights remain with the publisher or credited rights holder. · Image source

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What happened

According to PBS News’s source item, Crowds pack into Washington’s National Mall for prayer rally, President Donald Trump was expected to address the gathering, which got underway as a light rain fell, in a video message. Other top Republicans, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., were also on the schedule as part of the celebrations this year marking 250 years of U.S. independence.

Context

The development sits in VINI’s News file for readers following public-interest developments across VINI coverage areas. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-05-17T16:55:42+00:00.

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Primary source: Crowds pack into Washington’s National Mall for prayer rally via PBS News. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

This source-cited VINI report links to the original publisher record. VINI does not republish third-party article bodies without rights clearance. 1 source listed.

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