Trump redesigns America’s birthday party

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**Brian Lehrer** (0:22)
From WNYC, I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my Daily Politics Podcast. It's Friday, June 12th.
As you may have heard, America turns 250 on July 4th. It is a semi-quin-centennial. Could you have named that in a trivia contest?
Semi-quin-centennial is the word for 250th. For nearly a decade, a bipartisan group authorized by Congress had been planning what was supposed to be a big and inclusive birthday party to mark the occasion, a Smithsonian-led festival stretching from the Washington Monument to the Capitol. Instead, what we're going to have, it looks like, is something very different, something a lot more politically charged and partisan, you might say. The Trump administration set up a rival organization and withheld millions of dollars that it signed a contract to deliver. And when musicians started dropping out, as you may have heard, of a National Mall concert series, after learning it was so political, the president didn't try to win them back. He canceled those concerts, called the performers talentless, and turned the whole thing into what he's now billing as a, quote, rally to end all rallies with guess who, at the center. Michael Scherer, staff writer at The Atlantic, has been reporting on all this. He got his hands on budget documents and other internal memos. And he talked to many of the people inside the planning process. He wrote about it in a piece called Inside America's Ugly Birthday Battle, which we'll talk to him about now. We'll also get a little into that Flag Day UFC fight event, which is going to happen at the White House this Sunday, June 14th, Flag Day.
Also, the spectator in chief will probably get cake because it's his 80th birthday. No coincidence that he's holding a big party on Sunday, I think. Hey Michael, welcome back to WNYC.

**Michael Scherer** (2:22)
Thanks for having me again, Brian.

**Brian Lehrer** (2:23)
I'll read for our listeners the opening of your story. You wrote, years before Poison's Bret Michaels, Young MC and the Commodores dropped out of this summer's concert series on the National Mall, planners envisioned a Smithsonian led blockbuster festival stretching from the Washington Monument to the US Capitol. That would be open to all and free of partisanship, unquote. So who is behind those plans and what did they envision?

**Michael Scherer** (2:50)
You got to go back in history. You referenced about 10 years in 2016, Congress passes a law that says we're going to plan for a big celebration in 10 years, sort of a repeat of the 1976 celebrations, if any of your listeners are old enough to remember those, for the 200th anniversary. They've been planning ever since. So there were tons of events that were put together. A bunch of these are still definitely happening. There's going to be a ball drop on the night of July 3rd in Times Square. There's going to be a block party in Los Angeles. The plan for DC was to basically let Smithsonian take the lead on the National Mall. Every summer, there's an event called the Folklife Festival that Smithsonian puts on. It's a cultural workshop performance festival that lasts a couple of weeks. They were going to expand that, make it bigger, make it last longer.
They built those plans. Now, that ran into President Trump's plans. Back in 2023, when he was just starting his run for president, he puts out a video and says, if I'm elected, I'm going to make America's 250th celebrations fantastic. Here are my ideas. One of them was what he called the Great American State Fair. Back then, he said he would place it in Iowa at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. He said it would last a year. He talked about a high school sports competition called the Patriot Games, a bunch of other things. When he's elected, his aides come to Washington and meet with the people who are organizing all these other events, long before his election. For several months, they get along. They try and figure out a way to coordinate their efforts together.
The congressional group called America 250 allows Trump to raise money for his army parade last year. If you all remember that on his birthday and a bunch of other events through their group. And they meet through the summer of last year to sort of budget out what they're going to be spending their money on. And during that process, the one big beautiful bill passes. Congress, the congressional group is going to ask for $100 million to fund all this stuff. The White House advisor says, why don't you ask for 150? We'll keep 50 UKs keep 100 That passes. And then as the year went on last year, the relationship fell apart and it's gotten pretty bad since then. A lot of sort of name calling blindly behind the scenes. As you mentioned, there was a memorandum of understanding in December that the Interior Department signed promising 50 million. They basically reneged on that, only given 25 million.