Democratic report alleges Trump allies hijacked America250 planning

Democratic staff on a House committee accused President Donald Trump and his allies of taking over the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration and turning it into a vehicle for political fundraising, voter-data collection, Christian nationalist programming and benefits for Trump-connected operatives.

The interim report, released Thursday by Democratic staff of the House Natural Resources Committee’s oversight and investigations subcommittee, is titled “From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People Out of Their 250th Birthday.” It has not been officially adopted by the committee.

“Under President Donald Trump, this anniversary has been hijacked and perverted into a hotbed of corruption and self-enrichment,” the report says, alleging that a national commemoration was converted “into an apparatus for raising and spending money in service of the President’s ego, political ideology, and pet projects.”

Congress created the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission in 2016 to plan the 2026 celebrations through the nonprofit America250 Foundation on a nonpartisan basis. The report says the Trump White House pressured America250 to shift toward partisan, campaign-style events and, when leaders resisted, created Freedom 250 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the congressionally chartered National Park Foundation.

The report alleges the White House took control of the National Park Foundation board and installed Trump campaign operatives, including Meredith O’Rourke and Chris LaCivita, creating what Democrats described as an opaque entity with the foundation’s nonpartisan reputation and tax-exempt status but outside standard government transparency laws.

Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said he could not recall “anything even remotely like this” during his time in Congress. He described the National Park Foundation as “literally” hijacked “for a craven political agenda that tries to steal the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary and turn it into something that’s all about Trump, advancing this very divisive agenda and even enriching Trump and those around him.”

The report says Freedom 250 misled donors who intended to support America250. Sources interviewed by committee Democrats said fundraisers, including O’Rourke, gave prospective America250 donors Freedom 250 banking and routing numbers instead. The report says that conduct could constitute wire fraud and charitable solicitation fraud under federal and District of Columbia law.

“I’m a lawyer, and I know better than to pronounce that a crime has been committed,” Huffman told The Washington Post, according to Talking Points Memo. “But I do know the elements of fraud, and there is evidence of all those elements here.”

The report also says Freedom 250 used intermediaries with past ties to Trump to recruit performers while obscuring the organization’s political nature. Artists including Martina McBride and Young MC were told the Great American State Fair kickoff was nonpartisan, then faced backlash after it was revealed as a Trump-backed rally. Young MC called the booking a “bait and switch.” CNN reported, according to Talking Points Memo, that Trump was “livid” about sparse turnout at the fair.

Democratic investigators also point to sponsorship packages that began at $500,000 and rose above $10 million, with benefits including tiered recognition and a “historic photo opportunity” with Trump. The report cites a June 14 Ultimate Fighting Championship event on the White House South Lawn marking Trump’s 80th birthday, saying it used extensive government resources and was sponsored by corporations facing federal regulation. Fighters received bonuses in “USD1,” a cryptocurrency issued by World Liberty Financial, a trust run by the president’s children, and Trump bought up to $50,000 in stock in the UFC parent company weeks before the event, the report says.

The report also says Event Strategies, the firm that planned the Jan. 6 rally before the Capitol attack, received 18 federal contracts totaling roughly $40 million and an indefinite delivery master contract worth up to $100 million.

Democrats further allege Freedom 250 built a partisan database through its website and event registrations. The report says registration is powered by Campaign Nucleus, founded by Trump campaign veteran Brad Parscale, and that visitors to events such as a free FIFA World Cup Fan Zone on the National Mall provided personal information into that system.

The report says Freedom 250 replaced America250’s civic focus with Christian nationalist programming, including federally funded “Freedom Trucks” carrying mobile museum exhibits for schoolchildren with content from PragerU and Hillsdale College. Huffman said the effort presents “a fantasy that airbrushes out the more complicated parts of our history – slavery, the Native American genocide, the actual secular ideals on which our government was founded.”

With Fourth of July events still planned for the National Mall, Huffman said his goal is public exposure. “The one thing we can do is make sure the American people know what they’re doing in our name and with our tax dollars,” he said.