Trump sullies U.S. 250th celebrations

United States President Donald Trump is undermining his country’s momentous 250th anniversary celebrations by single-handedly making the celebrations about himself and not the country nor the citizens that he allegedly represents.

The “America 250 Commission” was created nearly a decade ago to serve as a non-partisan coordinator of anniversary events. The centrepiece of the commission’s events is a star-studded benefit concert in Los Angeles that has been dubbed “America’s block Party.” The gala, featuring big-name musical artists, will connect remotely to smaller, community-level parties across the country.

Trump, unsuccessful in efforts to take over the commission, decided to create his own organization, Freedom 250, to hold a rival event at Washington, D.C.’s famed National Mall that he is calling “The Great American State Fair.”

Trump’s plans to steal attention from official 250th anniversary events began to fall apart in recent weeks, as many of the musical acts pulled out and some states refused an invitation to participate. Undeterred, Trump stepped in as the headlining act to deliver a blistering, campaign-style speech at a time when Americans are being encouraged to lay down their partisan swords and celebrate the nation.

And that’s not all Trump is doing to make this all about Trump. The Trump Organization, the umbrella company that oversees all of the president’s business interests, is marketing an impressive line of “Trump 250” memorabilia. You can buy a US$200 Trump 250 blanket, a US$72 sweatshirt and a set of three golf balls for US$18. All proceeds to go to you know who.

A petulant, pouting president spending millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to hold a parallel and redundant event to celebrate America’s historic anniversary is really par for the Trump course.

Although millions of Americans no doubt still support the president, his latest and greatest display of narcissism may end up being the nail in the coffin of the once-potent Make America Great Again movement.

Trump is squandering millions of dollars on an enormous new ballroom attached to the White House, a new “Triumphal Arch” — nicknamed the Arc de Trump by detractors — and botched plans to repaint the surface of the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial in a shade of Yankee blue. Trump’s scowling visage looms from enormous banners hung on federal buildings and for the first time ever, his signature will appear on new U.S. paper currency. This will be the first time a sitting president has put his stamp on currency.

Unfortunately for the MAGA movement, Trump’s acute appetite for attention is beginning to backfire in spectacular fashion. His political endorsements are no longer a guarantee of electoral victory. Republicans in both houses of Congress are pushing back on some of his more outrageous legislative fantasies.

Perhaps most significantly, saner minds are starting to push back against his propensity to name and rename everything in his name.

In one of the most famous examples of rampant self-branding, the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C., was, at the president’s request, renamed “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.”

A court case launched by a Democratic congresswoman eventually led to an order to remove his name. All that Trump could do was order that scaffolding and tarps be erected over the wall where his name once stood, in a desperate attempt to avoid humiliation.

That is what the second Trump presidency has come down to: having lost his power to reshape the American political identity, the president can only hide his shame.

And history will remember him not as the man who put his name on public buildings, but the man whose name was removed.