Trump makes – As America prepares to mark its 250th anniversary, a concert series tied to the milestone was thrown into turmoil—nearly all performers pulled out over fears it had become too linked to President Donald Trump. Trump responded by announcing he will headline the
WASHINGTON — The countdown to America’s 250th anniversary was supposed to come with music and celebration. Instead. the first sign of strain arrived when nearly all the scheduled musical performers pulled out of a concert series marking the milestone. fearing the event had become too closely tied to President Donald Trump.
Trump didn’t step back. He stepped forward.
He announced he’d now be the headlining act of the Great American State Fair, putting an end to any possibility that the president—who has built his public and political persona on taking the spotlight—would yield the stage for a national celebration bigger than himself.
The shift also offered a preview of how Trump is likely to handle other high-profile moments ahead, including the World Cup, which the U.S. is co-hosting with Mexico and Canada.
Trump can be a watchable master of ceremonies. He can also be a president whose instincts for hosting are inseparable from being the centerpiece. From his reality-show days before he entered politics. to hours spent entertaining at events planned and impromptu. to repeatedly showcasing his properties and efforts to overhaul the White House. the president has long treated hosting as performance.
Timothy Naftali. a former director of Richard Nixon’s presidential library and a professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. put words to why that matters. “The president has an outsized personality,” Naftali said. “There’s a predictability to the way in which the president frames his actions — or any actions around any event associated with him — and that’s just part of who he is. and his makeup and his professional background.”.
The fair—set to begin June 25—was supposed to feature concerts. Now it will be kicked off by a Trump rally. The sequence follows another Trump-centric event at the White House on June 14: a UFC bout. Trump is a longtime cage match fan. and he has sought to bill the fight as part of the anniversary festivities. while also tying it to his 80th birthday.
Not every president treated hosting the same way. The article’s comparisons stretch back to the earliest era of the White House as a public stage.
Andrew Jackson threw open the White House for an 1829 Inauguration Day bash so unruly that staff eventually dispersed the crowd by moving tubs of whiskey and ice cream to the lawn. Franklin D. Roosevelt mixed pre-dinner cocktails for friends and aides at gatherings he playfully dubbed “The Children’s Hour.” Audrey Hepburn was among the luminaries Ronald Reagan hosted.
Trump, however, has more fully embraced the hosting role since returning to the White House. He built a patio area similar to one at his Mar-a-Lago estate and frequently travels to Florida and his properties in Bedminster. New Jersey. and Sterling. Virginia. to headline fundraisers and other gatherings.
When asked whether Trump might overshadow events meant to bring the country and the world together. White House spokesman Davis Ingle pointed to the president’s renovations at the White House and around Washington. In a statement. Ingle said in a statement that the “historic beautification” gives the city “the glory it deserves during our nation’s historic semiquincentennial celebration — something everyone should celebrate.”.
Even so, Trump has found other ways to inject himself into the anniversary itself.
The State Department is issuing passports with the president’s picture. Officials have designed a new $250 bill with his likeness. The Trump Organization—run by Trump’s children while he’s president—applied to trademark “Trump 250” logos and other merchandise. The U.S. Mint is also producing a 24-karat gold commemorative coin with Trump’s face. even though that echoes a 1926 precedent: a half-dollar silver coin bearing President Calvin Coolidge’s likeness to help mark America’s 150th anniversary.
Presidents have sometimes put themselves near the center of anniversary milestones. Ulysses S. Grant opened a Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia to mark the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1876. Richard Nixon inaugurated a five-year “Bicentennial Era” in 1971 ahead of the 200-year mark. though he resigned before the big day arrived.
Gerald Ford began the week of July 4. 1976 by inaugurating the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. then attended a Kennedy Center event featuring Bob Hope. OJ Simpson and others reading patriotic texts. On Independence Day. Ford spoke at historic Valley Forge. then traveled to Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. declaring. “Liberty is a living flame to be fed. not dead ashes to be revered.“ He went on to New York Harbor for a tall ship parade. presided over naturalization ceremonies at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate. and hosted a state dinner for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.
But Marc Stein. a history professor at San Francisco State University and author of “Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s. ” described a sharp contrast. “while Ford certainly hoped to use the bicentennial to promote his reelection campaign. he didn’t do it in such a self-aggrandizing. self-centered. narcissistic way. ” Stein said.
Naftali added that Ford “knew when to step out of the limelight and make sure the focus was on what mattered, which was the United States of America and the Declaration of Independence.”
Trump’s approach has been different. “Trump, by contrast, generally has contempt for norms” and rarely mentions “the great sweep of history,” Naftali said.
That question—what gets centered and what gets crowded out—has also played out among the organizations planning the anniversary.
Congress charged a national organization, America250, with planning commemorative events. Ahead of the 2024 election. the group drafted a memo asking whomever the incoming president was to mobilize federal agencies and welcome presidential involvement in events and initiatives. Rosie Rios. the America250 chair. said the group “has had a very supportive and collaborative relationship with the organizations planning initiatives on behalf of the president.”.
But America250 is separate from Freedom 250, a mix of public and private partnerships the Trump administration established to fund and prepare anniversary events—an arrangement that has caused confusion.
America250 says it aims to “inspire our fellow Americans to reflect on our past. strengthen our love of country. and renew our commitment to the ideals of democracy through programs that educate. engage. and unite us as a nation.” That aspiration collides with other political language from the Trump White House. including the executive order Trump signed last year seeking to beat back a “revisionist movement” responsible for “replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”.
Stein. now serving a one-year term as president of the Organization of American Historians. is helping organize “We Want More History. ” a push to coordinate local events celebrating the public’s love for the subject in fact-based ways. He said Trump’s version of history is “closer to propaganda, and it’s closer to cheerleading.”.
All of it matters now because the anniversary isn’t only about parades and plaques—it’s also about who gets to define the story being told.
And for Trump, the World Cup appears to be another stage built for him to occupy.
The president has created a federal World Cup task force and leads it. He collected a peace prize from soccer’s governing body. FIFA. and said he’d be on stage to present the tournament’s golden trophy to the winning team. He also oversaw the tournament’s draw at the Kennedy Center. a building he has sought to rename for himself. prompting legal challenges.
He then returned to the same Kennedy Center to headline December’s Kennedy Center Honors, noting, “We never had a president hosting the awards before.” Later, he posted on social media, “Would you like me to leave the Presidency in order to make ‘hosting’ a full time job?”
Naftali said whatever restraints existed in Trump’s first term are gone. “Whatever filters there were in the first term — and there weren’t many — are gone.” The result, he said, is “It’s undiluted Donald Trump.”
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