The Trump administration has begun to detail events to mark the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding next year, including a competitive youth athletic event, a fair and a UFC fight on the grounds of the White House.
In a video Thursday, President Donald Trump announced the creation of a new national, nonpartisan organization called “Freedom 250” that will work with a White House task force and a congressionally mandated United States Semiquincentennial Commission to help carry out his vision for “the most spectacular birthday the world has ever seen.”
“Already, we’ve had big celebrations to commemorate the 250th birthdays of the Army, the Navy and the United States Marines, but there is much, much more to come,” Trump said in the video.
The celebration will begin on New Year’s Eve. The Washington Monument will be lit with “festive birthday lights to honor the start of this historic anniversary year,” Trump said. Freedom250 said the monument will be lit through Jan. 5.
That will be followed by a “major prayer event” on the National Mall in the spring, said Trump, “to rededicate our country as one nation under God.”
As written in the Constitution, the government does not have the power to establish an official religion. But the move is indicative of the president’s alignment with his evangelical supporters and comes at a time the separation of church and state is being litigated in courts across the country, even in the Supreme Court.
An Ultimate Fighting Championship event is set to take place at the White House on June 14, which is Flag Day and Trump’s birthday. Dana White, the chief executive of UFC and a longtime Trump supporter, is set to host the occasion.
A two-week fair will take place on the National Mall from June 25 to July 10. “The Great American State Fair,” as Trump called it, will feature exhibits from all 50 states on American history, culture and innovations.
“Frankly, you’ll never see anything like it, and you’ll never see anything like it again,” said the president, who has had a long interest in fairs.
In 1996, he opened the Trump World’s Fair Casino in Atlantic City, with an event that included jugglers and stilt walkers, plus artifacts from and murals of past U.S. World’s Fairs. The casino was closed three years later and eventually demolished after losing about $10 million a year.
During his first run for president, Trump visited the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines — known for a life-size cow sculpture carved from 600 pounds of butter and appearances from presidential candidates — in a black helicopter embellished with bold letters spelling out his name.
Originally, the semiquincentennial fair was to be hosted on the Iowa State fairgrounds, calling “millions and millions of visitors from around the world to the heartland of America for this special, one-time festival,” the president said when he returned to the fair this summer. But the event grew into a more sprawling celebration, The Washington Post reported, and was moved to D.C.
In the fall, high school athletes will participate in a four-day event called the “Patriot Games,” said Trump, bringing “one young man and one young woman from each state and territory” to the nation’s capital. Transgender athletes, a group that has faced criticism over their participation in sports, will not be allowed to play in groups that match their identity, he said.
“I promise there will be no men playing in women’s sports. You’re not going to see that. You’ll see everything but that,” Trump said.
During his remarks at the Iowa State Fair earlier this year, the president said the athletic competition would be televised and overseen by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In addition to the marquee events, the president described two developments to commemorate the country’s anniversary year, including the previously announced “National Garden of American Heroes.” The project will feature sculptures of notable Americans and is set to open next July. Construction of Washington’s own “triumphal arch” — similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris — will begin soon, Trump said.
“We’re the only major city. We’re the only major capital. We’re the only major place without a triumphal arch,” Trump said, though there are similar structures in other U.S. urban centers, including New York City and Atlanta.
Trump said in the video that the months-long birthday bash “will be a time like you’ve never had in your lives.”
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