{"id":324908,"date":"2026-06-30T17:52:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/324908\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:52:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:52:57","slug":"tampa-mining-giant-mosaic-among-sponsors-for-trumps-freedom-250-bash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/324908\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa mining giant Mosaic among sponsors for Trump\u2019s Freedom 250 bash"},"content":{"rendered":"

As celebrations ramp up for America\u2019s 250th birthday this week, Tampa-based mining giant Mosaic is providing a sponsorship boost to the Trump administration\u2019s party.<\/p>\n

The fertilizer producer is listed as a \u201cpatriotic partner\u201d<\/a> of Freedom 250<\/a>, a limited liability corporation created by the National Parks Foundation<\/a> to plan and execute events at national parks and monuments for the country\u2019s 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump announced the organization on X <\/a>in December as a public-private partnership to \u201crenew the patriotism, pride and pioneering spirit of America.\u201d Mosaic is one of 20 corporations that are sponsoring Freedom 250, alongside Palantir, ExxonMobil and Chevron, according to the group\u2019s webpage.<\/p>\n

Freedom 250 is separate from America250<\/a>, a nonprofit federal commission established by Congress a decade ago to plan events around the 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n

Both entities say they\u2019re nonpartisan, but Democrats and watchdog groups have raised concerns about Freedom 250, noting in part that it hasn\u2019t shared how much each corporate sponsor has donated. Multiple sponsors, including Mosaic, have given while they have active business requests before the federal government.<\/p>\n

In February, the New York Times reported<\/a> that Freedom 250 was advertising access to Trump in exchange for sponsorships<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Donors whopledge $1 million or more receive invitations to a private reception hosted by the president, while those who donate at least $2.5 million get speaking roles at an event Saturday in Washington as the nation celebrates its independence, according to the group\u2019s sponsorship packages in the solicitation document obtained by the New York Times.<\/p>\n

Mosaic\u2019s sponsorship comes as it seeks approval from the federal government to expand its phosphate mining waste<\/a> pile in Hillsborough County, a project that could extend the lifespan of the company\u2019s Riverview plant by more than 15 years.<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for Mosaic did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the sponsorship.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The company wants to widen its phosphogypsum stack, close to the shores of Tampa Bay, by nearly 180 acres. Phosphogypsum is a mildly radioactive byproduct created when making fertilizer. It contains radium that decays to form radon gas.<\/p>\n

Both radium and radon can cause cancer, so the federal government requires companies like Mosaic to store the waste in engineered \u201cgypstacks.\u201d The scale of the proposed project, and the solid waste it involves, means Mosaic must receive approval from at least three federal agencies: the U.S. departments of the Interiorand Commerce and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.<\/p>\n

Mosaic regularly has proposals before the federal government. The Fortune 500 company\u2019s operations \u2014 both mining and processing phosphate \u2014 employ more than 3,000 people in the greater Tampa Bay region, according to the company.<\/p>\n

Freedom 250 has a slate of events on deck this week, including the ongoing \u201cGreat American State Fair,\u201d a celebration at Mount Rushmore and more than 850,000 fireworks shells launched from sites across Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

In August, Freedom 250 is hosting \u201cThe Patriot Games,\u201d a nationally televised teen athletic tournament.<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Times launched the Environment Hub in 2025 to focus on some of Florida\u2019s most urgent and enduring challenges. You can contribute through our journalism fund by clicking here<\/a>.+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As celebrations ramp up for America\u2019s 250th birthday this week, Tampa-based mining giant Mosaic is providing a sponsorship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[134402,23993,134403,134401,135,1526,137,136,2684],"class_list":["post-324908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-freedom-250","tag-mosaic","tag-national-parks-foundation","tag-sponsorship-packages","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}