How Trump’s America 250 'pet projects' left small towns out in the cold

In Ohio, the Trumbull County Historical Society had ambitious plans for local celebrations of the United States' 250th anniversary. But they encountered a major obstacle thanks to cuts that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) carried out earlier in President Donald Trump's second term. And on top of that, according to NOTUS reporter Anna Kramer, the president redirected Congress-approved funds from America 250 activities to "toward Trump's Freedom 250 pet projects."

"While America 250 is now asking Congress for more money to fill a funding shortfall," Kramer explains in NOTUS, "Congress has already responded to last year's DOGE cuts by funding state humanities councils at their normal levels for the 2026 fiscal year. The Trump administration just hasn't dispersed those funds. As of June, the administration has only given the councils less than half of what Congress appropriated — and told them not to expect the rest, council leaders told NOTUS."

Kramer adds, "Now, with the 250th anniversary just days away, the councils have been unable to fund anniversary projects. The Federation of State Humanities Councils, after a year of litigation against the Trump administration, just asked a federal judge in Oregon to declare that Trump is in violation of basic constitutional separation of powers rules by refusing to fully distribute what Congress intended."

Trump, according to Kramer, "redirected tens of millions of dollars from the DOGE cuts toward" his "plans for a triumphal arch and a statuary garden of 'American heroes' in Washington D.C."

"In the end," Kramer reports, "Trump's focus on the nation's landmark birthday made it harder for local groups across the country to plan their own celebratory projects."

Meghan Reed, executive director of the Trumbull County Historical Society, is expressing her frustration.

Reed told NOTUS, "There's certainly things that we could have done for America 250 if the funding was available. That just didn't work out how we thought it could have."

Interviewed by NOTUS, Jessica Cyders — executive director of the Southeast Ohio History Center — said of the funding cuts, "It means that we are not able to do things that are extra, things that are bigger projects. A lot of humanities organizations would have had some incredible projects that none of us have been able to complete."

According to Kramer, "local libraries and historical associations across the country" had to "abandon planning for ambitious history and civics initiatives" because the Trump administration "axed federal funding for state and local humanities projects last year."

Rebecca Brown Asmo, executive director of Ohio Humanities, told NOTUS, "As the director of Ohio Humanities, I don't take any sort of position about those particular projects. But what I do think is important is that Americans have access to funding and have access to history and humanities experiences in their own communities. And we're missing that as a result of now a second year of this funding being held back. These are taxpayer dollars that are intended to go to local communities — and right now, they're being held back and funneled to projects in Washington D.C."