Trump’s 'botched' mess of US’ 250th celebration 'as absurd as it is sad'

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts, as he attends a ceremony held to dedicate a 4-mile stretch of road as 'President Donald J. Trump Boulevard'. (REUTERS)

President Donald Trump had a golden opportunity to notch an easy win when his second term just so happened to coincide with America's 250th anniversary, but as one political activist observed for The Hill this week, that opportunity has devolved into a "botched" mess that is "as absurd as it is sad."

Svante Myrick is a Democratic politician best known for serving as the progressive former mayor of Ithaca, New York, and now heads up People for the American Way, a long-running liberal political activism group founded by television production icon Norman Lear. On Monday, he published a new piece for The Hill, breaking down the extent to which "Trump and his team have hijacked, corrupted and otherwise botched our nation’s 250th birthday," likening it to receiving a poor birthday present on one of the largest scales imaginable.

"The milestone anniversary of the Declaration of Independence should have been a nonpartisan national moment of reflection on our history," Myrick argued. "It could have and should have been a celebration of our survival and progress. It could and should have been a shared recommitment to building a nation in which democratic values are thriving, and the principles of the declaration and the promises of the Constitution are a reality for everyone in America."

He added later: "But that didn’t work for Trump, who is out to purge public conversation of anything that doesn’t make him feel or look great. He demands glitz, bombast and, above all, opportunities for self-aggrandizement."

To this end, he explained, Trump created Task Force 250 via executive order to work alongside Freedom 250, a private MAGA-aligned entity, to "raise corporate funds" for the purpose of funding and organizing his "flashy pet projects," including the UFC event on the White House grounds for his 80th birthday. Myrick also highlighted an "evangelical Christian religious revival tour" funded by these entities, with events set to be "dominated by Christian nationalists and other MAGA figures who supposedly 'rededicated' America to God."

"Having the government sponsor those inherently exclusionary events sends the message that the only real Americans are a certain kind of MAGA-minded Christian, leaving out millions of Christians as well as people of other faiths and those without any religious affiliation," Myrick argued. "If we had better leadership, we could be doing something very different. We could be celebrating the freedom, peaceful pluralism and religious flourishing that the separation of church and state has allowed and encouraged."

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