"Over the past year, Donald Trump has been fixated with remaking much of the country's key institutions in his own image. He has renamed the Kennedy Center after himself, put his own likeness on the National Parks pass, and threatened federal funding for Penn Station and Dulles Airport in order to obtain naming rights for them so they, too, can become extensions of the Trump brand."
"For a decade, the federal entity in charge of organizing the anniversary has been the US Semiquincentennial Commission, a bipartisan organization commissioned by Congress. In 2019, the government launched America250.org as the official nonprofit partner of the Commission, to help plan events, competitions, and other programs for the semiquincentennial. But the Trump White House has sidelined America250 in the run-up to the anniversary celebration; instead, it's set up a new organization called Freedom 250, to plaster MAGA-sanctioned messaging throughout the festivities."
Donald Trump has pursued a campaign to remake cultural and civic institutions in his own image, renaming cultural landmarks, placing his likeness on National Park passes, and seeking naming rights for major transit hubs. The semiquincentennial commemoration has been redirected away from the bipartisan US Semiquincentennial Commission and its America250 nonprofit partner toward a new White House-backed organization called Freedom 250. Freedom 250 is a subsidiary of the National Park Foundation, and the Foundation is being repurposed to disseminate MAGA-sanctioned messaging across anniversary events. These moves centralize control of national commemoration and politicize federal cultural programming.
Read at The Nation
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