A very Trump July 4

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: Hi readers, happy Thursday! The Logoff will be off tomorrow ahead of July 4. But before I go in search of a hot dog, let’s talk about how President Donald Trump is celebrating America’s 250th birthday. What’s happening? The celebration has been underway since last week, when the Great American State Fair kicked off on the National Mall. By and large, it’s not going very well: Reviews have ranged from merely underwhelming to “bleaker than expected.” On Thursday, a piece of the stage fell from the rafters, narrowly missing performers as they rehearsed. The main event, of course, will be this weekend. Trump reportedly wants to set a world record with a 40-minute, 850,000-shell fireworks display, which is likely to cause “very unhealthy” air pollution in Washington. But the show will have to wait until some TBD time, likely late at night — or potentially very early in the morning on July 5 — for Trump to speak. On Wednesday, he boasted that “it’s going to be approximately 107 degrees out, and I’m going to go, and I’m going to make a really long speech just to show that I can do anything.” Why does this matter? Trump’s monomaniacal focus on his version of America has come at the cost of a bigger, more inclusive celebration of the country’s semiquincentennial. As the news site NOTUS reported earlier this week, Trump’s DOGE initiative previously slashed funding for local celebrations — and is now refusing to dole out congressionally appropriated funds. On a national level, Trump has also channeled money meant for America250 — the bipartisan group created by Congress — into his own Freedom 250, a Trump administration-backed public-private group with a distinctly partisan slant. On Thursday, congressional Democrats also alleged that Trump misled donors who intended to support America250 by providing routing and account numbers for Freedom 250 instead. And with that, it’s time to log off… Let’s end on an upbeat, patriotic note: As my colleague Bryan Walsh explains, for all of our troubles, the United States is by many metrics doing far better than it was on America’s bicentennial 50 years ago. And as Constance Grady argues, there’s plenty of good in America that Trump can’t quash. (They’re both gift links.) Plus, a World Cup thing: The USMNT is heading to the round of 16 next week! In the meantime, I’m loving the team’s musical celebrations. Thanks for reading, have a great holiday, and we’ll see you back here on Monday!