This summer, Americans will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence at a dark and strange time.

Instead of coming together to celebrate the country’s achievements, acknowledge the conflicts and complexity of our history and our rich demographic diversity, Donald Trump and his cronies are embracing an explicitly religious, largely white, Christian nationalist version of America.

On Sunday, the Trump administration will kick off the 250th anniversary festivities with an outwardly religious event called Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving which will focus on “the extraordinary story of how God has powerfully and wondrously shaped the United States of America—remembering the people, sacrifices, and defining moments in which God has powerfully manifested Himself in our history,” according to the official 250.gov website.

The agenda for this “jubilee” reads less like a traditional religious event and more like a program for the Church of Trump. Most of Sunday’s speakers are evangelical Christians. Most are white. No Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist speakers are scheduled, prompting criticism and protests. The religious celebration, advertised by Trump cabinet members on their Instagram feeds, will feature extremist right-wing Trump-supporting religious speakers, such as Robert Jeffress, the Dallas MAGA pastor and Trump friend who recently said,“It looks like President Trump has a better understanding of what the Bible teaches than the pope.”

In a webinar posted on YouTube unearthed by the Washington Post, White House official Brittany Baldwin openly acknowledged the event’s lack of religious diversity, saying: “We worked very hard with the faith leaders we trust ... to ensure that we hear their concerns and we have the right focus for our community of believers, across the country. So I think if you do see another religion represented, it would probably be in a modest way.”

Another White House official, Paula White-Cain, a Christian nationalist who runs the White House Faith Office and recently compared Trump to Jesus, assured the audience that the jubilee would not include leaders “praying to all these different Gods.” Cain will be speaking at Sunday’s event along with far-right preachers who, like Jeffress have expressed extreme anti-LBGTQ+ views

With their overtly evangelical Christian program, the event’s organizers exclude millions of Americans who are not Christian or decline to participate in religious observance. Despite this exclusionary approach to the nation’s semiquincentennial, major corporations are sponsoring Freedom 250, including MasterCard, United Airlines, Exxon Mobil and John Deere. These corporations have been perfectly willing to align themselves with Trump’s extreme right rhetoric and message of religious exclusion, a major shift for corporate America, which professed a few short years ago to care about inclusivity. MasterCard’s website, for example, quotes the company’s “chief community and belonging officer” as saying, “We strive to ensure everyone has access to opportunity and each person feels heard and valued. When we engage with and in our communities and create spaces where everyone belongs, we’re better as a company and as a business.”

Freedom 250 Sponsors

Deloitte*

Exiger

ExxonMobil

IndyCar

January AI

John Deere*

Lockheed Martin

MasterCard

Oracle*

Palantir*

Penske

Phorm Energy*

SAP*

Scotts Miracle-Gro*

UFC*

United Airlines*

(*Indicates sponsorship of both Freedom 250 and America 250)

The “Rededicate 250” event is the kickoff of Trump’s effort to seize control of the official 250th anniversary celebrations, launching a parallel Freedom 250 organization to supplant the bipartisan “America 250” celebration established by a bipartisan commission a decade ago. The parallel MAGA-approved version, selling corporate sponsorships and offering access to Trump himself for a $1 million donation, caused ample confusion among corporate donors. Even worse, the head of Freedom 250, a former software executive named Keith Krach, appeared to solicit foreign donations in Davos earlier this year, stating that “We’ve got toolkits for countries, states, companies, all of that, it’s all about, partnership and what could be funner than, marketing America,” Krach said.

The Trumpified version of the 250th anniversary has explicitly embraced a narrative of U.S. history that glosses over the uncomfortable parts, such as slavery and the movements to establish civil rights and women’s rights. Fitting that pattern, the right-wing Prager U and Hillsdale College are using taxpayer money for a fleet of “Freedom Trucks” complete with an AI-generated George Washington and content designed by conservative Christian organizations, rather than mainstream historians.

USA Today reported the exhibit was designed to allow viewers to “not learn about what America looked like based on an interpretation of some woke agenda,” according to Prager U’s top executive, who added that “We’ve been talking about how intentionally taking the Bible out of the classroom has effectively ruined America’s education system.”

In a similar vein, a multimedia display at the Washington Monument last December left out Native Americans, slavery, and the Civil Rights movement. The Department of Education placed a banner of Charlie Kirk on its building, an overtly political move that gave the late Turning Point USA founder equal historical importance as Booker T. Washington, one of the most prominent figures in African American history.

These celebrations will continue over the summer with events that appear targeted to the cultural appetites of the president’s base.

A year ago, Trump tasked Interior Secretary Doug Burgum with a massive, shameful campaign of historical erasure across national park sites across the country, dubbed “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”

Under the direction of the Trump administration, the National Park Service removed signs about slavery, gay rights, and climate change. A confidential internal Park Service database exposed by the Post documented Orwellian “reviews” of numerous key events in U.S. history, with park managers even forced to review an exhibit on the 1955 killing of Emmett Till at a national monument commemorating the Black teen’s murder.

This highly politicized mess is not what Congress envisioned a decade ago in passing legislation creating an official commission for the 250th anniversary. House and Senate leaders of both parties were designated commissioners of the bipartisan body known as the United States Semiquincentennial Commission. Former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and former First Ladies Laura Bush and Michelle Obama were announced as honorary co-chairs.

A generation ago, Democrats and Republicans alike understood the wisdom of coming together to commemorate and understand our past. In February 1976, President Gerald Ford was clear about the need to confront the legacy of Japanese internment as the 200th anniversary approached.

“An honest reckoning... must include a recognition of our national mistakes as well as our national achievements. Learning from our mistakes is not pleasant, but as a great philosopher once admonished, we must do so if we want to avoid repeating them,” Ford said.

In these divided times, we would be wise to heed his words.

A drone components company in which Donald Trump Jr. holds a stake and an advisory board seat just inked a multimillion-dollar deal with a drone manufacturer the Trump brothers are backing—and the company is openly citing the war Donald Trump launched in Iran to explain the demand. The Trump family stands to profit from a foreign conflict the president himself initiated.

Before markets opened April 21, Unusual Machines [NYSE American: UMAC], a manufacturer of drone components, announced an order worth more than $5 million to supply parts to Powerus, a drone manufacturer.

“The conflict in Iran has highlighted the global need for NDAA-compliant counter-UAS,” the press release quoted Unusual Machines CEO Allan Evans as saying — referring to drone-defense systems that comply with the National Defense Authorization Act. “This is an entirely new market for our U.S.-manufactured parts.” Or, to put it in plain English: the Trump administration’s new foreign policy is good for the Trump family’s new business.

Unusual Machines stock reached its highest price in a month the day after the announcement, up 11.4% from its closing price the day before the announcement. Based on the roughly 332,000 shares Don Jr. disclosed acquiring in November 2024, the price spike would have briefly added about $580,000 to the value of his stake. His current holdings are not publicly disclosed, and there is no public record of whether he sold shares during the spike.

The conflicts of interest in this deal are multifaceted: Donald Trump Jr. joined Unusual Machines’ advisory board just three weeks after his father won the 2024 presidential election, acquiring about 332,000 shares in the company. In October 2025, Evans told Forbes that the advisory board didn’t exist prior to Don Jr. being named to it and that he was selected. He remains a shareholder and advisory board member, the Wall Street Journal reported on March 9, 2026, and was quoted endorsing Unusual Machines in a March 19 press release announcing its $150 million public offering. In March, Powerus announced it was merging with Aureus Greenway Holdings. Once that deal closes this summer, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump will be investors in Powerus, too.

Independent analysts confirm the deal is what moved the stock price. The Motley Fool, citing data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, called the Powerus order “the primary catalyst” for the stock’s rise that week. Investment bank Needham reiterated its “buy” rating and $20 price target following the announcement, according to MarketBeat.

The president’s sons stand to profit when his foreign policy creates demand for products their companies sell to each other. That is not a coincidence. It is the business model: on April 30, Bloomberg reported that Powerus inked a deal with the Air Force.

What happens when an egotistical wanna-be king becomes president (again)? He dedicates his second term in office to attempting to punish perceived enemies, putting his face and name on things in the Nation’s capital and spending our taxpayer dollars on pet projects to glorify the Trump name.

The District was once a place tourists could wander through the streets and feel the energy of the American people, the nation’s history and the scope and scale of our impressive government. The iconography and power of the president was closely tied to the White House as previous presidents understood the awesome responsibility imbued in the post.

Now, Trump’s infamous headshot with a furrowed brow and scowl has been plastered across the city. He’s splashed his face on banners across several federal buildings, making a mockery of the agencies including the in-theory independent Justice Department. He desecrated the Kennedy Center’s programming and slapped his name on the memorial’s facade. And more recently, he juxtaposed himself next to George Washington on the Interior Department’s new “America the Beautiful” annual pass for U.S. national parks.

In October, Trump demolished the White House East Wing, a sacred space that inherently belongs to the American people. In its place he plans to build a gaudy $400 million ballroom funded by numerous corporations and billionaires. He even appointed three unqualified cronies to the National Capital Planning Commission to try and ensure the project passes. In the same month, he announced plans to erect a 250-foot arch that, incidentally, impedes the line of sight for veterans and service-duty members laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery.

President Trump craves the lavishness of King Louis XIV but lacks the taste level. Instead, he uses every opportunity he has to build a faux gold-plated kingdom. What’s reassuring is, despite Trump’s desire to be an omnipotent ruler, the American people have shown that resistance can effect change and that Trump is in fact, not a king.

At Public Citizen, we are fighting back. We sued the administration on behalf of several Vietnam veterans and an architect to halt Trump’s tacky, illegal arch. This is just one of over 35 lawsuits the organization has filed over Trump’s first year back in office representing multiple citizens and organizations fed up with Trump’s authoritarian tactics. Public Citizen has also led the cause to stop Trump’s corporate-funded ballroom, which has been delayed in its building due to public outrage. And very importantly, Public Citizen is one of several national organizations leading the No Kings movement, which will hold its next national day of action Saturday, March 28 standing together to say we object.

Despite the myriad of egotistical pet projects that Trump continues to drum up, Americans are not distracted by his attempts at kingly trappings. They’re focused on the atrocities the president and his administration continue to commit, the enrichment of the Trump family through fraudulent schemes, the defunding of critical institutions, the evisceration of programs that the poorest Americans rely on for basic needs and the blatant disregard for the rule of both international and domestic law.

This weekend millions of Americans from different walks of life will pour out into the streets to voice their opposition to the Trump regime. Only months away from the United States’ 250th birthday, No Kings is the perfect opportunity to show one’s patriotism.

Protest is essential nonviolent resistance that keeps our country connected to the principles it was founded on. Trump is trying to build a kingdom, but America was not built for a king.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.1

Beyond Vietnam, A Time to Break Silence

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, 1967

As Martin Luther King Jr. said in his famed anti-imperialist speech against the war in Vietnam, war is the enemy of the poor.2 The Trump Administration is allegedly preparing to request additional money (reportedly up to $200 billion) to fund its illegal war on Iran.3 Funds that could feed hungry American children at school, build affordable housing for families, or invest in clean infrastructure to address the impending climate crisis are instead being used to bomb hungry Iranian children, destroy homes, and further pollute the Earth (note that the American military is one of the world’s largest polluters).4 Year after year, American taxpayer dollars are used, not for the benefit of the people that actually live here, but for destruction abroad, and in this case for incoherent reasons the government can’t seem to begin to explain.

The United States government privileges the military-industrial complex over the standard of living of its own people, stuffing money into a bloated Pentagon budget that incentives war and enriches private contractors at the expense of everyday Americans. It is not a coincidence that at the same time that the GOP has rolled back Medicare and Medicaid benefits, cut food assistance for Americans most in need, the administration is simultaneously waging a war that is estimated to cost billions each day that it goes on. And what do the American people get in return for these vast sums spent on war? Loss of life, environmental damage, economic uncertainty, mental distress, and rising gas prices. This is an all cost and no benefit proposition for Americans and for people abroad, save a handful of war-profiteering corporate interests.

American needs are consistently dismissed with a cynical platitude masquerading as a question of financial responsibility: How will we pay for it? The American people want a healthcare system that prioritizes people over profit. But how will we pay for it? We want better education: a higher education system that does not thrust the majority into lifelong debt, equity in schools so that each child has a fair chance, free lunch so that no child’s test scores are retarded because they were forced to go to school on an empty stomach. But how will we pay for it? We want improved public transportation (see plans for high-speed rail), for efforts to be made to mitigate the climate crisis (to invest in nuclear, wind, and solar), for a livable federal minimum wage (a wage that hasn’t been updated in over a decade, all while inflation rises).5 Yet we are told these demands are unrealistic. We don’t have it in the budget. And yet, when it comes to deadly military adventurism, all of those qualms conveniently disappear into thin air like a fine mist, and our lawmakers abandon their responsibilities and defer to the administration to decide how to spend American blood and treasure.

What is truly unrealistic is pretending that this state of affairs is normal and can continue indefinitely. It is unrealistic, or rather, positively absurd, to think that this status quo will hold. Americans do not want this war. When polled about the issues that were most important to them in the 2024 election, Americans overwhelmingly answered: the economy, followed by healthcare.6 Ironically, war with Iran did not make the cut. In fact, the current imperialist aims of the Trump administration are in direct contradiction with the political will of the people. War sends the economy into a tailspin, endangers supply chains, and disrupts global markets. The money that could address this country’s healthcare issues is instead funding darker pursuits by this lawless administration, from the killing fishermen off the coast of Venezuela, to the bombing of a school in Iran.

We can’t put up with a status quo where the billionaire class and corporations make endless profits in the quest for world domination, while ordinary Americans, service members, and civilians abroad, pay an unbearable price. It is our responsibility to forcefully reject our country’s warpath, and lift every voice to build a better and more harmonious future. We are one people, in an increasingly interconnected world, and we must begin to act like it.

Dixi!

Here’s an infuriating fact: the United States spends more on healthcare than any other country, but somehow produces one of the worst outcomes compared to other developed nations.1 We have one of the highest rates of infant mortality, maternal mortality, and uninsured residents among peer countries.2 Millions of Americans are uninsured or underinsured, the majority of whom are low-income people of color.3 Over one third of Americans are being crippled by medical debt, while Big Pharma reaps unimaginable profits from charging monopoly prices on medications people need to live, limiting access to impoverished communities, and spending more on self-enrichment than research and development of new medications.4 Americans don’t trust the healthcare system; many Americans do not go to the doctor in fear of exorbitant medical bills, some choosing instead to self medicate with opioids or other illicit substances.5

Chronic pain sufferers may end up subject to incarceration for self medicating. The impact of the opioid crisis and the war on drugs have been felt unevenly across racial and class lines. Many poor Americans turned to drug use as a form of self medication for chronic pain.6 Instead of receiving the help that they needed through public programs, many were imprisoned and further marginalized.

The current healthcare system is not built to prioritize health, but rather to prioritize profit. Historically, these different motives have been at odds with one another. Well meaning healthcare providers, such as doctors and nurses, express frustration at having to jump through hoops to provide their patients with life saving care, arguing back and forth with insurance companies who are incentivized to delay and deny care.

The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated massive vulnerabilities in the American healthcare system. While countries with universal healthcare such as China, France, and Brazil were able to recover quickly, the United States lagged far behind. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs wrote in one working paper titled “Variations in COVID strategies: Determinants and lessons”7 that “The findings of the paper suggest that establishing universal health care and social protection systems and improving governance need to be taken up by all countries as immediate tasks, not as distant goals, if the world is to be prepared for future epidemics” (emphasis added). In a rapidly changing world, where the changing climate is exposing humanity to viruses never before seen, it is more important than ever to have a robust healthcare system that concerns itself with the wellbeing of every individual.8

Universal healthcare isn’t only morally sound, it’s financially smart. In 2023, France spent $7,136 per person on health, the United Kingdom spent $6,023 per person, Japan spent a measly $5,640 per person, and Switzerland spent $9,688 per person (and that’s on the higher end). The United States managed to best all of these countries with a whopping $13,432 spent per person.9 It feels good to be first at something.

Additionally, we are losing money in the form of lost productivity in our economy every time a worker’s life is cut short due to preventable illness or chronic disease. The United States has the lowest life expectancy out of large, wealthy OECD countries at 78.4 years compared to Germany at 80.6, the United Kingdom at 81.8, Austria at 81.6, Japan at 84.1, and Switzerland at 84.2.10

Lack of transparency and integrity in the medical system has caused many to turn towards the world of alternative medicine, which the wellness industry has taken full advantage of, profiting off of people’s fear and anxiety surrounding healthcare. The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement is the latest culmination of these anxieties, taking advantage of American’s mistrust of the medical system to promote unscientific and unfounded cures for profit. These alternative medicines can produce worse health outcomes: mothers dying due to an increase in home births and lack of trained health care professionals, cancer patients forgoing chemotherapy for so-called “holistic medicines”, and fomenting distrust for vaccines which profoundly impact children’s health and life outcomes.11

Marginalized communities are hit especially hard. Connecting your ability to receive care with your ability to work means that people who have been locked out of the labor market struggle to access care. New mothers, individuals with disabilities, and gig workers all report having a more difficult time accessing healthcare.12 The lowest paying jobs often don’t offer healthcare at all, leaving entire sectors of workers vulnerable.13 For low income families, the impact of being uninsured or underinsured compounds financially over time, as a health care emergency can significantly impact the household’s financial standing, credit score, and ability to access loans, keeping individuals in a cycle of poverty. In order to seriously think about lifting the most vulnerable Americans out of poverty, Medicare for All must be on the agenda.

Furthermore, every American knows that the level of care that you receive varies on the basis of what coverage you have. Going from one job to another can mean losing benefits like dental or vision. The level of care that you receive shouldn’t be dependent on where you were born, how much money you make, or the color of your skin. Every American deserves to have access to care, regardless of their tax bracket—because healthcare is a human right.

The naysayers and the people making money off of human suffering, will argue that it isn’t feasible to have universal healthcare in the United States. Where are you going to find the money? President Donald J. Trump is quoted as saying, “We have to reject the socialist model that rations care, restricts access, slashes quality, and forces patients onto endless waitlists. Instead, we believe in freedom. We believe in choice. We believe in the highest standard of care in the world — anywhere in the world.”14 Funny enough, as we have detailed at great length, access is already restricted. Care is already rationed. Quality has been slashed. The Trump administrations claims to believe in “freedom”, but the freedom to do what, exactly? The freedom to die if you’re poor and can’t afford care? The freedom to go into medical debt to bring life into the world? The freedom to pay more for less? They “believe in the highest standard of care in the world — anywhere in the world” (believe being the operative word) because it is a fiction. It’s a fantasy that is entirely out of reach as long as we have a privatized for-profit healthcare system.

How will we pay for it? Consider: increasing taxes on the wealthy (they hardly pay right now), decreasing the percentage of the national budget that goes to military spending (we could start with the Pentagon’s bloated budget), and/or increasing taxes on corporations. In fact, studies show that implementing Medicare for All would actually cut spending in the long term.15 Trump and his corporate donors decry Medicare for All because it cuts directly into their profits. But profit has been put before the needs of the people for too long. It is about time that we heed the words which established the founding of this country, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness—rights which have been trampled upon by the rule of oligarchs, the banalization of suffering and death, and the worship of money.

Let Americans stand up with one voice to fight for life over death, health over illness and the will of the people over the will of corporations! Let us return power into the hands of the people, the very people from which the government derives its power, the very people whose lives have been devalorized and disregarded, used like slop as fodder for investor’s rising stock prices. And when the day of reckoning arrives, when justice threatens to flow like a river throughout the land, let all Americans of good will demand with one voice:

Medicare for All, now!