Today I’m digging into what might be the most brazen grift of this administration yet — and that’s saying something. A new interim report from House Natural Resources Committee Democrats lays out, in stunning detail, how the Trump White House hijacked America250, the independent nonpartisan commission Congress set up back in 2016 to plan our nation’s 250th birthday celebrations. When that commission wouldn’t bend to Trump’s demands for partisan spectacle and favored contractors, the administration created a shadow replacement — Freedom 250 LLC — nested inside the National Park Foundation, and used it to reroute donor money, harvest personal data, and potentially commit wire fraud against people who thought they were donating to the real thing.
I walk through the executive summary of this 40-page report line by line, including the AI-generated “George Washington” trailers pushing revisionist history to schoolkids, the $68 million in taxpayer money funneled to Trump-allied contractors, and corporate donors like Verizon buying access. I also play Jen Psaki’s breakdown of the janky Ferris wheel, crumbling arch replica, and evasive answers from the firm that ran Trump’s January 6th Ellipse rally — now running this too.
Beyond the Freedom 250 mess, I cover the DOJ’s latest stall tactic on releasing unredacted Epstein files, a troubling report that Russia may be testing NATO’s resolve against Poland, Pete Hegseth’s blocked plan to cut U.S. troops in Europe, and the genuinely dangerous heat conditions expected in DC for the July 4th celebrations — please, if you’re going, stay safe and hydrated.
As always, thanks for spending part of your day with me. Have a safe and healthy Fourth.
