The fates have granted Donald Trump a rare, historic opportunity to burnish his personality cult. As luck would have it, the biggest showman ever to occupy the White House will be in charge of the upcoming celebrations for the 250th anniversary of American independence.
True to form, Trump is making the semiquincentennial – an ungainly word for what ought to be a fabulous occasion – all about him. Ignoring the words of the Founding Fathers about how “all men are created equal”, the President has embarked on a round of self-glorification that would make them blush with shame.
Against the backdrop of rising food and fuel costs that have shut many Americans out of Trump’s proclaimed “golden age”, gaudy plans for commemorative gold coins, passports and $250 bills bearing his portrait (if the law can be overcome), and a series of brash, Maga-themed events, are dividing rather than uniting the country.
Freedom 250, which is organising the celebrations, claims to be showcasing “the triumph of the American spirit” and the “everyday Americans” who 250 years ago “chose to fight for a simple idea: power belongs to the people”.
But with Trump seeking to bottle that patriotism and stick his own name on it, the Home of the Brave would appear to be meekly accepting that its elected ruler can bulldoze through history and reset the nation in his own image. It’s a strange reversal of fortune that has led Sean Wilentz, professor of American history at Princeton, to claim: “We’re no longer living in a truly democratic regime.”
Apparently, “mad” King George III, the monarch viewed in the US as a monstrous tyrant, wasn’t mad at all in 1776, the year of the American revolution. According to a new book, The Last King of America by British historian Andrew Roberts, George III was “probably our most cultured monarch, certainly one of our most intelligent, a pious, decent and upstanding personal figure”.
The same can’t be said for America’s newest king. Trump has made one grand set piece of the festivities a gladiatorial Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event on the lawn of the White House. Critics have likened the arches of the outdoor cage-fighting arena to a fairground rollercoaster, which is authentically American in its own way.
But the degree of Trump’s self-worship is distinctly out of kilter with the enlightened spirit of the revolution the anniversary commemorates. The show will take place on 14 June, a few weeks shy of actual Independence Day, on 4 July, but conveniently timed to coincide with the President’s 80th birthday.
Trump pulled a similar stunt last year with a military parade ostensibly celebrating the founding of the US army which also paid tribute to his own birth. But the expected crowds didn’t materialise at the National Mall in Washington and Trump was embarrassed by the podgy, scruffy troops on display. (Others were encouraged by their lack of martial spit and polish, which made things feel less dictatorial.)
This time, 1,200 free tickets to the cage-fighting have been offered to active-duty US service members, but only if they are fit, with a waist-to-height ratio of 0.55 befitting the “warrior ethos” promoted by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Meanwhile, a host of performers have withdrawn from the Great American State Fair concert series on the National Mall planned for late June and July, fearing they would end up celebrating their President more than their country at what they thought would be a non-partisan event.
Trump speaks about proposed renovations to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool (Photo: Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg)But no matter – Trump has volunteered to replace them on the grounds that he is “the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar”.
The capital of America is being transformed. The reflecting pool by the Lincoln Memorial will soon be swimming pool blue, the bronze horses at the entrance to Arlington Memorial Bridge are being spray-painted gold, and planners have begun to mark up the site of the proposed 250-foot “Arc de Trump”, though actual triumphs have been thin on the ground.
Writing in The Atlantic, David Frum observed Trump could have been a natural to lead the anniversary celebrations. “He loves parades and extravaganzas,” Frum pointed out. This could have been an ideal moment to “reinvent himself as the leader of all the American people”.
There was one problem. “The only thing he had to do was – for once in his life – not act like an insane egomaniac. He couldn’t do it.”
The question on America’s 250th birthday is whether the Trump era will be a passing blip or leave a permanent scar. The East Wing of the White House has been torn down, but the funding to replace it with a giant ballroom has stalled in Congress.
A judge has ordered the removal of Donald J Trump’s name from the John F Kennedy Arts Center by the Potomac River. But Trump has boasted on TikTok that the UFC arena on the White House lawn could be permanent, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. “Maybe we’ll never take it down,” he said.
Happy birthday America. But who is the mad king now?
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