In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford wanted to use the 200th anniversary celebration of the founding of our nation as a way to heal the country from the wounds of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, which culminated in the resignation of Richard Nixon.
Fifty years later, as America prepares this Saturday to mark its 250th anniversary, our country is in an equally tumultuous time. Unfortunately, the approach from the White House has turned the commemoration, at least in part, to another manifestation of division.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way a decade ago when Congress, looking ahead to the 2026 anniversary, created America250, a bipartisan commission to plan the events and run the show. Following Donald Trump’s reelection, however, the president wanted to take over the celebration — in part because he had a more expansive, and more expensive, vision of what the celebration should be, and in part because he wanted to use the anniversary to celebrate himself. From those desires was born a rival committee, Freedom 250.
Although there has been some coordination between the two publicly funded groups, largely they have gone their own way, with America250 concentrating on events held outside of Washington, D.C., and Freedom 250 focusing on those in Washington. On Saturday, July 4, when Americans will be concentrating on the national holiday, they may be a little confused over who is doing what. Freedom 250 will be hosting a marquee event on the National Mall in Washington, including what is being billed as the world’s largest fireworks show ever as well as what sounds like a humongous Trump political rally. Across the coast, America250 will be holding a concert in Los Angeles that will feature several major musical performers but no commander-in-chief.
The split between these two groups has also played out in the distribution of funding. When Congress passed last summer Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, included within the massive package of tax and spending cuts was $150 million to underwrite the nationwide celebration. The understanding, though not codified in the law, was that America250 would get $100 million for its events, and the remaining $50 million would go to Freedom 250 for the events prioritized by the president. The White House, though, flipped those numbers, and so far it has not even made good on that smaller allocation to America250. The Interior Department promised to transfer $50 million to the bipartisan group by Feb. 1, but so far only half the money has been sent. It’s possible the government will be suing itself to get the other $25 million, or that Congress, if Democrats retake either chamber in the November mid-term elections, will launch an investigation into how all the money was spent.
Some will say, with reasonable justification, that Trump is not the cause of the nation’s divisions but rather a symptom of them. Still, it is disappointing that the president, so consumed with his political grievances and his own ego, has missed this nearly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to focus the people in this nation on the history and values they share rather than reminding them of how far the country is ideologically apart. As a result, there seems less popular enthusiasm for America’s 250th birthday than there was for its 200th.
It’s possible that most Americans, come this weekend, won’t much pay attention to these rival national groups but instead concentrate on celebrating the holiday in their own individual communities, where unity and common purpose are easier to find. Maybe the president will catch himself and, when he takes the stage Saturday, refrain from fabricating history, congratulating himself and bashing his opponents.
A little humility and a little restraint could do more to impress the nation than the 850,000 fireworks that will be shot off into the capital’s skies.
