{"id":590,"date":"2026-07-02T22:38:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T22:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=590"},"modified":"2026-07-02T22:38:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T22:38:54","slug":"a-very-trump-july-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=590","title":{"rendered":"A very Trump July 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here<\/em>.<\/p>

Read more Medicare is now offering $50 GLP-1 prescriptions. The US may never be the same.<\/a><\/p><\/div>

Welcome to The Logoff:<\/strong> Hi readers, happy Thursday! The Logoff will be off tomorrow ahead of July 4. But before I go in search of a hot dog, let\u2019s talk about how President Donald Trump is celebrating America\u2019s 250th birthday.<\/p><\/div>

What\u2019s happening?<\/strong> The celebration has been underway since last week, when the Great American State Fair kicked off on the National Mall. By and large, it\u2019s not going very well: Reviews have ranged from merely underwhelming to \u201cbleaker than expected.\u201d On Thursday, a piece of the stage fell from the rafters, narrowly missing performers as they rehearsed.<\/p><\/div>

The main event, of course, will be this weekend. Trump reportedly wants to set a world record with a 40-minute, 850,000-shell fireworks display, which is likely to cause \u201cvery unhealthy\u201d air pollution in Washington.<\/p><\/div>

But the show will have to wait until some TBD time, likely late at night \u2014 or potentially very early in the morning on July 5 \u2014 for Trump to speak. On Wednesday, he boasted that \u201cit\u2019s going to be approximately 107 degrees out, and I\u2019m going to go, and I\u2019m going to make a really long speech just to show that I can do anything.\u201d<\/p>

Read more The worst thing about America\u2019s World Cup<\/a><\/p><\/div>

Why does this matter?<\/strong> Trump\u2019s monomaniacal focus on his<\/em> version of America has come at the cost of a bigger, more inclusive celebration of the country\u2019s semiquincentennial. As the news site NOTUS reported earlier this week, Trump\u2019s DOGE initiative previously slashed funding for local celebrations \u2014 and is now refusing to dole out congressionally appropriated funds.<\/p><\/div>

On a national level, Trump has also channeled money meant for America250 \u2014 the bipartisan group created by Congress \u2014 into his own Freedom 250, a Trump administration-backed public-private group with a distinctly partisan slant. On Thursday, congressional Democrats also alleged that Trump misled donors who intended to support America250 by providing routing and account numbers for Freedom 250 instead.<\/p><\/div>

And with that, it\u2019s time to log off\u2026<\/h2><\/div><\/div>

Let\u2019s end on an upbeat, patriotic note: As my colleague Bryan Walsh explains, for all of our troubles, the United States is by many metrics doing far better than it was on America\u2019s bicentennial 50 years ago. And as Constance Grady argues, there\u2019s plenty of good in America that Trump can\u2019t quash. (They\u2019re both gift links.)<\/p><\/div>

Plus, a World Cup thing: The USMNT is heading to the round of 16 next week! In the meantime, I\u2019m loving the team\u2019s musical celebrations.<\/p>

Read more America at 250: Who are we, anyway?<\/a><\/p><\/div>

Thanks for reading, have a great holiday, and we\u2019ll see you back here on Monday!<\/p><\/div>

See More:<\/span>
  • Donald Trump<\/li>
  • Politics<\/li>
  • The Logoff<\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>

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    How Trump took over America\u2019s 250th, briefly explained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nA very Trump July 4 - American Living Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=590\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A very Trump July 4 - American Living Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How Trump took over America\u2019s 250th, briefly explained.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=590\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Living Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-02T22:38:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/c4164a14c107634cebc0d18d282800b7.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1267\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=590#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=590\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b970e3bc484fe2e26860a4380d70de8\"},\"headline\":\"A very Trump July 4\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-02T22:38:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=590\"},\"wordCount\":550,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=590#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/8f17673a9114478e520bd07be1141e0e.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=590#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=590\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=590\",\"name\":\"A very Trump July 4 - 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