Federal Aviation Administration implements flight restrictions in Black Hills ahead of vice presidential visit
RAPID CITY, S.D. – The vice president of the United States will be in the Black Hills ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.
Vice President JD Vance is expected to visit South Dakota this week as part of his family’s Independence Day celebrations, multiple sources have confirmed to The Dakota Scout.
Vance is slated to arrive in Rapid City on Thursday afternoon.
The vice president’s schedule while in South Dakota and the duration of his stay in the state are unclear. However, the Federal Aviation Administration has issued temporary flight restrictions in the vicinity of the Rapid City Regional Airport, the city of Rapid City and the Keystone–Mount Rushmore region of the Black Hills. The flight restrictions are in effect from Thursday morning until the morning of July 4.
Attempts to obtain comment from the White House Wednesday afternoon by The Dakota Scout were not successful.
Vance, 39, is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and former venture capitalist from Ohio who rose to prominence as the author of Hillbilly Elegy, a 2016 memoir about growing up in a working-class family in Appalachia. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022 and selected as President Donald Trump’s running mate at the Republican National Convention last summer.
Since taking office in January, Vance has often been seen traveling with his wife, Usha, and their three young children, projecting a family-oriented image during public appearances.
Vance’s visit comes a year before a planned fireworks display at Mount Rushmore that will take place July 3, 2026. The event will be part of an organized celebration commemorating 250 years since the United States gained independence from the British Crown. Those festivities have the backing of both Gov. Larry Rhoden’s administration and the U.S. Department of the Interior, which last month permitted the fireworks display after yearly denials under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
