What is the Trump-backed Freedom 250? It’s different than America250
What is Freedom 250 — the White House-backed group behind National Mall July 4 events and the Great American State Fair.
Congressional Democrats are calling on a key government watchdog to investigate whether the Trump administration unlawfully used taxpayer-funded 250th anniversary celebrations to bolster Republican’s midterm campaign efforts.
In a Sept. 8 letter, Reps. Jared Huffman and Joseph Morelle, leading Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee asked the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ nonpartisan investigative arm, to examine whether user data collected during Freedom 250 events has been used by Trump and his Republican allies to build voter contact lists.
“President Trump and his allies are in a position to use information on American voters, harvested with taxpayer money and government resources, in an attempt to tip the scales in the upcoming midterm elections,” the lawmakers wrote.
Freedom 250, the quasi-government group Trump created to carry out his vision for the nation’s 250th anniversary, hired Campaign Nucleus, a company founded by the president’s 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale, to run ticketing, registration and data collection. Parscale also owns the company that handled Freedom 250’s email and text messaging, Dyspatchit.
Americans who sought tickets to an array of 250th events, including the FIFA World Cup Fan Zone on the National Mall, the Great American State Fair, the July 4 Salute to America, and the Patriot Games, submitted their name, email address, phone number and ZIP Code to the Campaign Nucleus system.
USA TODAY previously reported that those who requested tickets to the Great American State Fair were asked to consent to receiving requests for donations to an organization affiliated with Trump’s campaign arm. They were also directed to 45.donaldjtrump.com, a site asking people to “consider donating to the MAGA movement.”
Cellphone numbers and email addresses are among the most valuable assets in modern political campaigns because they allow organizations to contact supporters directly with fundraising appeals, volunteer requests and voter mobilization messages at little cost.
After USA TODAY requested comment, Freedom 250 removed the fundraising related material. A spokesperson for the organization said the language did not “reflect how the SMS messaging system is actually used, which is limited to event logistics and communications.”
Freedom 250 also said the data collected was “solely for Freedom 250 event communications and is not retained for or used by any political entity.”
Yet, lawmakers allege that event registrants received multiple emails from Freedom 250 sent with the address “contact@win.donaldjtrump.com,” which is associated with the campaign Super PAC Never Surrender.
“This means that either Freedom 250 is so closely tied to the Trump campaign that it is using the campaign PAC’s email for its own regular business purposes, or that Freedom 250’s mailing list has already been shared with the Trump campaign and the campaign is utilizing it for outreach,” they write in the letter.
Federal Election Commission records, they say, show Never Surrender paid Dyspatchit, Pascal’s company managing Freedom 250 emails and text messages, more than $400,000 for email services this election cycle.
According to the lawmakers, Freedom 250 says it’s privacy policy does not apply to information collected by third party vendors, like Campaign Nucleus or Dyspatchit. Campaign Nucleus’ privacy policy also says that it can receive personal data from clients and that it may share data with other business partners, the lawmakers write.
“Freedom 250 and its vendors are able to exercise such relaxed and permissive privacy policies because Freedom 250 is intentionally structured to escape the restraints posed by federal law,” the Democratic members argue.
They question whether the ties between Freedom 250 and Trump’s campaign apparatus violates laws prohibiting tax-exempt organizations from intervening in political campaigns, prohibiting political activities of executive branch government employees and the use of tax payer funds.
The letter adds to a growing list of concerns from Democrats and independent watchdog groups that Freedom 250 lacks transparency, skirts federal rules and allows the president to profit off the nation’s 250th anniversary.
Tump and his allies also faced criticism for transforming non-political commemorations of America’s 250th anniversary planned by a group established by Congress into politically centered events prominently featuring the president.
Huffman and Morelle requested the GAO review Freedom 250 documents, including contracting information, records management and funding information.
Freedom 250 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.