Break out the sparklers and brace yourself for the yugest Fourth of July ever. Independence Day is only a few weeks off, and the president has decided that what would really make this year’s festivities special is a big, beautiful jolt of rebranding, Trump-style.

Apparently underwhelmed by the way the nation’s capital has celebrated in years past — key events include the National Independence Day Parade down Constitution Avenue, a free concert on the West Lawn of the Capitol and fireworks over the National Mall — President Trump is injecting himself into the celebration. While details are still being hammered out, the administration has been working for months on plans for the president to deliver an address from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Organizers of the traditional celebration are stressing that the president’s speech will be a separate event that will not interfere with the rest of the party. But back in February, the president claimed credit for the entire turbocharged affair in a tweet urging Americans to “HOLD THE DATE” for “one of the biggest gatherings in the history of Washington, DC.”

He is calling the new and improved product “A Salute to America,” featuring a “major fireworks display, entertainment and an address by your favorite President, me!”

We know what some of you are thinking: Doesn’t this feel like a gaudy way for the president to steal some of the day’s glory for himself — to make this, at least in part, “A Salute to Donald Trump”?

Yes, it does. But in hijacking America’s birthday party, Mr. Trump is doing more than merely indulging his petty narcissism. He is trampling a longstanding tradition of keeping these events nonpartisan — apolitical even — and focused on bringing the nation together.

For decades, Washington’s Fourth of July tribute has aimed to play down or paper over political divisions and celebrate America — not any particular leader or party. Recognizing their power to distract, not to mention incite, presidents have opted to absent themselves from the events. They don’t appear on stage at the concert. They don’t preside over the fireworks. They certainly don’t grab themselves a prime-time speaking slot. On the National Mall. In front of the monument to arguably America’s greatest president. Where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech.

You have to go all the way back to President Harry Truman to find a president who even participated in the formal Washington celebration. (In 1951, Mr. Truman spoke from the Washington Monument about the progress of the Korean War.) In 1970, during the fractious era of Vietnam, President Richard Nixon videotaped remarks to be shown on the Mall. Other leaders have largely remained out of the picture, visiting troops or attending naturalization ceremonies or hosting bipartisan picnics on the South Lawn of the White House. (Three of the first five presidents died on July 4.)

This is not to suggest that the party has remained free of political controversy. In 1970, protests over the Vietnam War roiled the ceremonies. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan’s interior secretary, James Watt, caused a kerfuffle by banning the Beach Boys from performing on the Mall, saying they would attract “the wrong element.” Mr. Reagan and Nancy Reagan, longtime Beach Boys fans, reversed him. (Mr. Watt, summoned to the Oval Office to explain why he preferred the Las Vegas troubadour Wayne Newton to the Beach Boys, left with a plaster model of a foot with a bullet hole through it.)

Presidents from both parties have grasped that this ode to America is not about them or their agendas — or even their own personal patriotism.

Mr. Trump, by contrast, cares not at all about public unity. His political career is premised on stoking the nation’s divisions. And his vision of patriotism is heavily wrapped up in ostentatious displays of hard power. Remember his failed efforts to organize a military parade down the streets of Washington?

No question, Mr. Trump loves a good spectacle — the bigger the better. He was clearly thrilled with the elaborate tributes that other nations have paid him on his overseas visits. Now, he has found a way to manufacture a similar tribute here at home, and he’s not going to let a little thing like tradition ruin this priceless branding opportunity.

Already, the backlash has begun. “He can’t resist injecting partisan politics into the most nonpartisan sacred American holiday there is: the Fourth of July,” said Representative Gerald Connolly, a Democrat from suburban Virginia. He called it “part of a pattern of driving wedges between Americans and making himself the subject of attention.”

The National Park Service, the Secret Service and local law enforcement are scrambling to work out the security and logistical challenges of a presidential appearance. The fireworks are being moved from the usual location at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to a local park, to allow for bigger crowds to assemble at the site of the president’s speech. The display is also being extended by a couple of minutes, allowing Mr. Trump to brag of the biggest show ever.

This is far from the most significant political norm that Mr. Trump has shattered in the course of his presidency. It is depressing nonetheless. The greatness of America does not reside with its president, but with its people. It is this spirit that the annual celebration in the nation’s capital has endeavored to preserve. Until now.

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