Quote · Pod Save America
Heather Cox Richardson on Trump’s 250th Celebrations
Where this was said
States Opting Out and Americans Reclaiming the 4th
At 16:35 · chapter starts 13:00
Wagner asks Richardson whether the states skipping Trump's Great American State Fair echo the sectional divisions of 1860 — when different American communities were already pulling apart. Richardson is careful: 1860 is the wrong comparison, and in any case state-level opt-outs aren't the headline. The real story is that Trump has effectively declared America's 250th anniversary his personal holiday, having diverted funding from the bipartisan America 250 commission to his own Freedom 250 organization. [1] — Heather Cox Richardson "Eight blue states are skipping Trump's Great American State Fair, but Richardson says the more important signal is Trump declaring the 250t…" 14:11 What's emerged in response, Richardson notes, is a genuine grassroots patriotism: the Knicks celebration in New York, the Obama Presidential Center opening in Chicago, and a Juneteenth that felt more like the Fourth of July than anything Trump has planned.
Eight blue states are skipping Trump's Great American State Fair, but Richardson says the more important signal is Trump declaring the 250th a personal celebration. Americans are finding their own ways to celebrate — the Knicks parade, the Obama Center opening, Juneteenth — all feeling more like authentic Fourth of July moments than anything on the National Mall.
The Obama Presidential Center opened on June 18, coinciding with Juneteenth celebrations, with some attendees calling it a de facto Fourth of July celebration.
This Juneteenth resonated in a way no previous one had, functioning not just as a commemoration but as a genuine act of solidarity against a system designed to strip away freedom. The Trump era has forced Americans to confront how the villains of history aren't safely in the past.
