US president Donald Trump’s allies are offering access to him and other perks to donors who give at least $1 million to a new group supporting flashy initiatives he is planning around the nation’s 250th birthday, according to documents and interviews.
The group, Freedom 250, is threatening to overshadow years of plans meant to reach the broadest cross-section of Americans for semi-quincentennial celebrations. They are now taking on a Trumpian flair, replete with marble and machismo.
But Freedom 250 has also emerged as another vehicle, akin to the White House ballroom project, through which people and companies with interests before the Trump administration can make tax-deductible donations to gain access to, and seek favour with, a president who has maintained a keen interest in fundraising, and a willingness to use the levers of government power to reward financial supporters.
When Trump announced the creation of Freedom 250 in a social media post in December, he promised it would give the nation “the most spectacular birthday party you’ve ever seen”.
Several of Freedom 250’s planned events and monuments lack obvious connections to the Boston Tea Party, the signing of the Declaration of Independence or other seminal moments that marked the nation’s founding.
Rather, they are tailored to Trump’s political agenda and his penchant for spectacle, personal branding and legacy. They include the construction of an arch overlooking Washington, an IndyCar race through the nation’s capital, a national prayer event and an Ultimate Fighting Championship match on the White House lawn to coincide with the president’s 80th birthday.
The interior of the Freedom Truck Museum, part of the Freedom 250 initiative. Photograph: Zack Wittman/The New York Times
Meredith O’Rourke, the president’s top fundraiser, is amassing private donations for Freedom 250. Her team is circulating a solicitation offering “bespoke packages” for donors.
While there are inconsistencies in the solicitation language, the detailed breakdown of packages for donors indicates that those who give $1 million (€840,000) or more will get invitations to a “private Freedom 250 thank you reception” hosted by Trump, with a “historic photo opportunity”. Those who give $2.5 million or more are also being offered speaking roles at an event in Washington on July 4th.
The effort is reminiscent of fundraising Trump has spearheaded since he returned to the Oval Office last year for other groups and projects he has backed, including the ballroom and a supportive super political action committee.
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While presidents usually dial back their fundraising in their second terms or focus on helping their party, as they are barred by the US constitution from seeking re-election, Trump has hosted a series of dinners and gatherings for corporate executives and wealthy individuals who have given millions to his favoured causes.
Some donors have used the forums to seek favour, and his administration has sometimes given them what they want, though there is no definitive link between government actions and donations.
To be sure, there is a long history of politicising or raising corporate money for national celebrations, including during the 1976 bicentennial.
Former president Richard Nixon was criticised for stacking the planning commission with political allies, said MJ Rymsza-Pawlowska, a professor at American University in Washington who wrote a book about the 1976 bicentennial. The bicentennial had so many corporate partners that people began calling it the “buy-centennial”, she said.
But Trump is taking things to new levels. Compared with Nixon, Rymsza-Pawlowska said, Trump is politicising the celebrations “in a more overt way, and with less pushback”.
Representatives from the White House and Freedom 250 downplayed concerns about selling access to donors.
People need to understand that there’s a dual track going on here. And one of the lanes of that endeavour is to get everybody’s story out, and the other is trying to showcase the president and have his ego stroked
— Bonnie Watson Coleman
“The president is incredibly grateful to his donors, but unlike the politicians of the past, he can’t be bought by anyone,” said Danielle Alvarez, a spokeswoman for Freedom 250.
In response to questions about Freedom 250’s fundraising, Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman, said in a statement that Trump was “ensuring that America gets the spectacular birthday it deserves”.
The president’s embrace of Freedom 250 has raised concerns among some involved in the similarly named America250, a bipartisan commission established by Congress a decade ago that is planning more traditional celebrations of the United States’ semi-quincentennial.
While America250 is a stand-alone congressionally authorised non-profit group, Freedom 250 utilises opaque corporate structures. Both groups could shield the identities of some donors from the public, though most sponsorships are expected to be advertised. (Trump’s supporters previously urged corporations and individuals to give to America250 as well.)
The Freedom Truck in Tampa, Florida. Photograph: Zack Wittman/The New York Times
While Freedom 250 is seen as a Trump-controlled group, it is technically a limited liability company created by, and housed inside, the National Park Foundation. A congressionally chartered apolitical non-profit group, the foundation serves as the official fundraising arm of the National Park Service and raises money for things like wildlife conservation.
Each administration can appoint people to the park foundation’s board. The Trump administration added two stalwart supporters in November: O’Rourke and Chris LaCivita, Trump’s 2024 campaign co-manager.
In a statement, the National Park Foundation said it created Freedom 250 to fund special events “at the direction of the National Park Service”, and beyond what congressionally appropriated funds supported.
Keith Krach, a former Silicon Valley executive who was appointed undersecretary of state during the first Trump administration, has been chosen as chief executive of Freedom 250.
On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month, at a venue featuring Freedom 250, Krach appeared to solicit support from attendees.
“We’ve got tool kits for countries, states, companies, all that. It’s all about partnership,” he said. “Let us know.”
Alvarez said that Freedom 250 is not accepting foreign donations.
There is an array of perk packages for prospective donors, according to the solicitation.
Contributors who give at least $500,000 get “VIP access, invitations and preferred seating at all Freedom 250 events”. Those include a prayer gathering called “Rededicate 250”; a memorial day event; a “Great American State Fair” over the summer; a July 4th celebration; and a high school athletic competition in the autumn, where, Trump promised in his announcement video, “there will be no men playing in women’s sports”.
Freedom 250 will also help oversee an IndyCar race planned for the summer called the “Freedom 250 Grand Prix”, which will wend its way through Washington’s streets and around the National Mall.
Trump indicated in his announcement video that Freedom 250 would help facilitate a National Garden of American Heroes, a sculpture garden of 250 prominent American figures; a “beautiful triumphal arch” near the Lincoln Memorial in the style of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris; and a UFC fight on the White House grounds.
America250 will manage more traditional celebrations, like promoting the anniversary at football games and encouraging Americans to put in a record number of hours volunteering for their communities this year.
Rosie Rios, a former Obama administration official who is the chair of America250, said in a statement that her group welcomed Freedom 250’s providing “a clear funding mechanism” to advance presidential initiatives that would “give the American people more ways they can celebrate America’s 250th birthday”.
But one member of the commission – Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat from New Jersey – said she was concerned that taxpayer money allotted by Congress for the celebration would be steered by the Trump administration to Freedom 250 and not to her group.
America250 has received only $25 million of the $150 million appropriated last summer for the celebrations, Watson Coleman said, far less than the $100 million it had asked for. She said she believed Freedom 250 would get the bulk of the rest, but she still hoped her group would receive another $25 million.
She worried that Americans tuning in on July 4th would see a celebration meant to glorify Trump, and little trace of her group’s effort.
“People need to understand that there’s a dual track going on here,” Watson Coleman said. “And one of the lanes of that endeavour is to get everybody’s story out, and the other is trying to showcase the president and have his ego stroked.”
The US interior department, which oversees the National Park Service and other federal lands across the country that will host events related to the semi-quincentennial, has instructed agency staff to make Freedom 250 the “primary branding” for government communications on all national birthday events, according to internal communication strategy documents.
“America250 branding will still appear in co-branded events,” one agency memo states. But, “Freedom 250 should be the lead identity in most cases.” Employees have been encouraged to update their email signatures to include the Freedom 250 logo.
A US interior department spokesperson referred questions to the White House.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.