# On USA’s 250th, Even the Party Planners Are Divided

An episode of [Big Take](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1578096201), 3 Jul 2026, 22 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/UVBrz8bN8aM2Xe47PEPu/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/825d4e29-b616-46f4-afd7-ae2b0013005c/234eda4b-1118-4c49-91a0-b47c00cd2adf/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=8b1dd624-a026-43e9-8b57-ae2b00130066

The federal programming leading up to the United States’ 250th anniversary this weekend has ranged from the genteel (essay contests for grade-schoolers and a national push for volunteerism) to the MAGA-coded (a “Freedom Truck” convoy and a UFC cage fight on the White House lawn). The events are the product of rival planning committees – one created last year by the Trump administration, another by Congress a decade ago. On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder talks to Bloomberg Businessweek Senior Editor Laura Bliss about the funding battles and cronyism allegations that have dogged this year’s events – and how they echo earlier chapters of American history. Read more: • The Money and Influence Behind America’s Very MAGA 250th Birthday Party • Why the Great American State Fair Looks So Empty We have a special Bloomberg subscription offer for podcast listeners at Bloomberg.com/podcastoffer. Hosted by Sarah Holder; Produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky; Reported by Laura Bliss; Edited by Jeffrey Grocott and Tracey Samuelson. Fact-checking by David Fox; Engineering by Alex Sugiura. Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
[0:07] Speaker 2: Right now on the National Mall in Washington, d C.
[0:11] Speaker 2: A birthday party for America is supposed to be in
[0:13] Speaker 2: full swing. Being here at the Great American State Fair
[0:17] Speaker 2: in the nation's capital, I can definitely say, you know,
[0:20] Speaker 2: on's here.
[0:20] Speaker 3: It sucks, it's not packed, but you guys have to
[0:23] Speaker 3: understand this is like three football fields here that this
[0:26] Speaker 3: fair is on.
[0:27] Speaker 2: The Great American State Fair is a sixteen day event
[0:30] Speaker 2: meant to mark the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of
[0:33] Speaker 2: the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Photos, videos and
[0:38] Speaker 2: reporting from the scene show people have had mixed experiences there.
[0:43] Speaker 4: Here we go Rodeo two fifty eight. We're the Great
[0:46] Speaker 4: American State Fair and someone from the Midwest I would
[0:48] Speaker 4: like to have a word with whoever had the audacity
[0:51] Speaker 4: to give it that name.
[0:51] Speaker 3: The Great American State Embarrassment.
[0:55] Speaker 2: The Blackluster Fair is just one of many semi quin's
[1:00] Speaker 2: and tennial events that have been planned in the lead
[1:02] Speaker 2: up to July fourth, and Laura Bliss, a senior editor
[1:05] Speaker 2: at Bloomberg BusinessWeek, says there's turned out to be quite arranged.
[1:10] Speaker 4: A ball drop in Times Square, a concert at the
[1:13] Speaker 4: LA Coliseum.
[1:15] Speaker 2: A fleet of sixteen wheelers featuring a video message from
[1:18] Speaker 2: the President.
[1:19] Speaker 3: A national volunteerism initiative.
[1:21] Speaker 2: A day of national prayer. If these celebrations seem a
[1:28] Speaker 2: little disjointed, that's because they're the product of not one,
[1:32] Speaker 2: but two federally funded party planning organizations with competing visions
[1:37] Speaker 2: that are as polarized as America itself. One is called
[1:42] Speaker 2: America to fifty, an offshoot of a semiquincentennial commission that
[1:46] Speaker 2: Congress created all the way back in twenty sixteen, and
[1:50] Speaker 2: the other is called Freedom to fifty, which the Trump
[1:53] Speaker 2: administration set up last year to throw more maga codd
[1:57] Speaker 2: semi quincentennial events. Just published a story in BusinessWeek that
[2:02] Speaker 2: dives deep into both of these groups.
[2:05] Speaker 4: It is kind of a bit of a diconomy, I
[2:07] Speaker 4: think you could say, of a fairly quiet, sort of
[2:11] Speaker 4: somewhat decentralized, kind of politically neutral organization.
[2:16] Speaker 1: That's America two fifty to.
[2:18] Speaker 3: One that is very much molded in the image of
[2:22] Speaker 3: the President.
[2:23] Speaker 2: Freedom two fifty is the group behind the fair and
[2:26] Speaker 2: the trucks. For months, these groups have been jockeying for
[2:30] Speaker 2: influence and funding, and now that the big birthday is
[2:34] Speaker 2: finally here. How did this two party party system pan out?
[2:39] Speaker 2: And what does the unofficial rivalry itself say about the
[2:43] Speaker 2: nation two hundred and fifty years after its founding. I'm
[2:50] Speaker 2: Sarah Holder, and this is the big take from Bloomberg
[2:52] Speaker 2: News Today on the show Happy Birthday America. How planning
[2:57] Speaker 2: for the US's two fiftieth became tangled allegations of mismanagement
[3:02] Speaker 2: and partisanship, Laura, Before there were these two competing groups,
[3:11] Speaker 2: there was just one, the America two fifty Foundation, which
[3:15] Speaker 2: was set up by the US Semiquincentennial Commission. When exactly
[3:19] Speaker 2: was it created and what was it supposed to do?
[3:22] Speaker 4: So? The US semi Quincentennial Commission was created by an
[3:26] Speaker 4: Act of Congress in twenty sixteen. I was under President
[3:29] Speaker 4: Obama to make sure that America's two hundred and fiftieth
[3:32] Speaker 4: birthday party was a smashing success.
[3:35] Speaker 2: The commission was made up of four Democrats and four
[3:38] Speaker 2: Republican members of Congress, along with sixteen private citizens chosen
[3:42] Speaker 2: by legislators.
[3:44] Speaker 4: You know, the vision was that this group of people representing,
[3:47] Speaker 4: you know, both sides of the aisle were going to
[3:48] Speaker 4: put something together that reflected the country.
[3:51] Speaker 2: But the Commission got off to a rocky start.
[3:54] Speaker 4: There were a lot of tensions, a lot of feuding
[3:58] Speaker 4: on the Commission very early on that potentially set it
[4:01] Speaker 4: back to some extent, and so with some of its
[4:03] Speaker 4: fundraising goals and that kind of thing.
[4:05] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you reported on some of those early
[4:08] Speaker 2: controversies during the Biden administration. For example, for America two
[4:12] Speaker 2: fifty employees brought a lawsuit against their bosses.
[4:15] Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about that.
[4:16] Speaker 4: I think it was twenty twenty two that for former
[4:20] Speaker 4: employees of America two fifty filed a lawsuit accusing organization's
[4:24] Speaker 4: leadership of cronyism, self dealing, mismanagement of funds. There were
[4:31] Speaker 4: allegations about you having to pay out invoices for work
[4:34] Speaker 4: that was never done, and eventually these parties did settle.
[4:39] Speaker 1: In a filing.
[4:40] Speaker 2: At the time, attorneys for America two fifty said that
[4:43] Speaker 2: the lawsuit failed to lay out any cognizable claim.
[4:46] Speaker 4: I think America two fifty would say this is weld,
[4:49] Speaker 4: this is under previous leadership.
[4:52] Speaker 3: But nevertheless, I.
[4:53] Speaker 4: Think you can point to that and just sort of
[4:55] Speaker 4: see that there were problems organizationally that may have kind
[4:59] Speaker 4: of slowed down on the momentum in terms of planning
[5:03] Speaker 4: and actual celebration.
[5:05] Speaker 2: Then came the election of Donald Trump. America two fifty
[5:09] Speaker 2: had already gotten the ball rolling, but now a new
[5:12] Speaker 2: president was in charge. At first, it looked like the
[5:15] Speaker 2: Trump administration and the America to fifty team were going
[5:18] Speaker 2: to be able to work together. America two fifty even
[5:21] Speaker 2: sponsored Trump's birthday military parade and helped put on a
[5:24] Speaker 2: cryptocurrency conference featuring Trump's sons. But pretty soon the visions
[5:29] Speaker 2: of the Trump administration and America two fifty started to splinter.
[5:33] Speaker 4: The administration replaced the executive director with a very very
[5:37] Speaker 4: young former Fox News producer who was fired not that
[5:42] Speaker 4: long after. Swapping out some of the consulting groups that
[5:46] Speaker 4: we're working with America two fifty with firms like Events Strategies, Inc.
[5:52] Speaker 4: Which is best known for organizing the January sixth rally
[5:55] Speaker 4: at the Capitol in twenty twenty one, the still rally. Eventually,
[6:00] Speaker 4: the kind of Trump administration folks largely went their own
[6:03] Speaker 4: way and set up this other entity, Freedom to fifty,
[6:07] Speaker 4: to basically achieve what the president wanted. Freedom to fifty.
[6:11] Speaker 4: People will say that America tifty was ultimately not willing
[6:15] Speaker 4: to kind of work with them to achieve the president's
[6:17] Speaker 4: vision America to fifty. People will say, you know, they
[6:21] Speaker 4: were trying to take over the organization, and you know,
[6:23] Speaker 4: we basically wouldn't let that happen.
[6:25] Speaker 2: So, just at a basic level, how was Freedom to
[6:28] Speaker 2: fifty created? And what do we know about how it's funded?
[6:31] Speaker 4: I mean, these are great questions that we actually don't
[6:34] Speaker 4: have a lot of clear answers to, and I think
[6:37] Speaker 4: that that is core to you know, the criticisms that
[6:40] Speaker 4: have been raised by Democrats in Congress and watchdog groups
[6:44] Speaker 4: about this organization. So what we do know is that
[6:47] Speaker 4: Freedom to fifty is a wholly owned subsidiary of the
[6:51] Speaker 4: National Park Foundation, which sounds kind of odd.
[6:55] Speaker 1: Yeah, why is that?
[6:56] Speaker 4: The National Park Foundation, is right, is a very well
[7:00] Speaker 4: establish a longstanding nonprofit partner to the National Park Service,
[7:05] Speaker 4: which means Congress recognizes it as like a foundation that
[7:08] Speaker 4: can raise money and kind of do like supportive work
[7:12] Speaker 4: for this federal agency essentially.
[7:16] Speaker 3: So, yeah, the National Park.
[7:17] Speaker 4: Foundation says that, you know, the National Park Service, which
[7:22] Speaker 4: of course is run by or overseen by the Secretary of Interior.
[7:26] Speaker 4: Doug Burgham asked the Foundation again their official partner to
[7:31] Speaker 4: set up this Freedom fifty LLC as essentially an entity
[7:37] Speaker 4: to kind of hold and transfer money, and I should say,
[7:41] Speaker 4: like much like America tifty that has included both federal
[7:44] Speaker 4: funding as well.
[7:46] Speaker 3: As privately raised funds. How much we don't know exactly.
[7:51] Speaker 2: In a comment for Laura's story, a National Park Foundation
[7:54] Speaker 2: spokesperson said any funds received or spent by Freedom two
[7:58] Speaker 2: fifty will be accounted for or through the nonprofits annual
[8:01] Speaker 2: financial reporting processes. The most visible difference between the two
[8:06] Speaker 2: groups is how they've approached planning for the big birthday.
[8:10] Speaker 4: On the America tifty side, it's temple programming, I would say,
[8:15] Speaker 4: is largely these kind of decentralized events. So that includes
[8:20] Speaker 4: a grand Volunteerism initiative where they're trying to sort of
[8:24] Speaker 4: break a new record in the number of volunteer hours
[8:27] Speaker 4: logged by Americans. They have sponsored an essay writing contest
[8:33] Speaker 4: awarding greade schoolers a visit to a national park. There's
[8:37] Speaker 4: a national week of flag raising. They're going to be
[8:39] Speaker 4: burying a time capsule at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. They
[8:44] Speaker 4: are towing America tifty branded airstream trailers to walmarts across
[8:49] Speaker 4: the nation behind Dodge rams.
[8:51] Speaker 3: And on top of that.
[8:52] Speaker 4: They've got like lots and lots of in kind corporate
[8:55] Speaker 4: sponsorships where you'll see the America fifty logo on Coco
[9:00] Speaker 4: Colacans or Southwest Airlines planes. I think part of what
[9:05] Speaker 4: it reflects is a very kind of palatable, pretty anadyne,
[9:09] Speaker 4: not gonna anger people and maybe not gonna totally.
[9:13] Speaker 3: Thrill you know a lot of folks either.
[9:16] Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's what the critics of this organization
[9:19] Speaker 4: would say, that they've kind of struggled to capture attention,
[9:22] Speaker 4: you know, with some of these initiatives.
[9:25] Speaker 2: In a statement, America two fifties current chair rosy Rios
[9:29] Speaker 2: said she's incredibly proud of the momentum the commission has
[9:33] Speaker 2: achieved with events like the America two to fifty ball
[9:36] Speaker 2: drop in Times Square, among other things. She said the
[9:39] Speaker 2: group recorded more than ten million volunteer hours for America Gifts.
[9:43] Speaker 4: And then on the Freedom fifty side, you have more
[9:47] Speaker 4: of the events that you've probably been reading and hearing about.
[9:50] Speaker 2: Right.
[9:51] Speaker 4: So in May there was the National Day of Rededication,
[9:56] Speaker 4: a rededication to fifty, which was a heavily Christian you know,
[10:01] Speaker 4: infused day of National Prayer on the mall featuring members
[10:06] Speaker 4: of the Trump cabinet. There was also the Grand UFC
[10:12] Speaker 4: Cage Fight, a white House lawn which actually was branded
[10:16] Speaker 4: Freedom to fifty. Was not technically linked to the organization,
[10:19] Speaker 4: but they lend their name out to many of the
[10:21] Speaker 4: other initiatives that the Trump administration has supported on its own.
[10:26] Speaker 4: There's the Great American State Fair, which is happening right now.
[10:29] Speaker 3: There are what are called Freedom.
[10:31] Speaker 4: Trucks, which are a federally funded set of sixteen wheelers
[10:36] Speaker 4: towing exhibits on the nation's history, created by conservative think
[10:42] Speaker 4: tanks essentially and also pretty heavily featuring the President himself.
[10:48] Speaker 2: And it's telling that's a helpful image. The America to
[10:52] Speaker 2: fifty airstreams and the essay writing contests versus the Freedom trucks.
[10:57] Speaker 1: Yeah, clear contrast.
[10:59] Speaker 3: Pretty clear contrast.
[11:04] Speaker 2: Responding to Laura's reporting on Freedom two fifty, the Department
[11:07] Speaker 2: of the Interior said its employees were excited to participate
[11:11] Speaker 2: in the events, adding quote, it is bizarre that such
[11:14] Speaker 2: a historic event celebrating our amazing country is being villainized
[11:18] Speaker 2: by the liberal legacy media.
[11:22] Speaker 1: After the break.
[11:23] Speaker 2: More from Bloomberg Businessweeks. Laura Bliss on allegations of Independence
[11:27] Speaker 2: Day cronyism from nineteen seventy six to twenty twenty six. Laura,
[11:40] Speaker 2: why does it matter that there are two separate semiquin
[11:44] Speaker 2: centennial groups that have emerged?
[11:46] Speaker 1: What exactly are they competing for?
[11:48] Speaker 3: Yeah, that's such a good question. I think they are
[11:51] Speaker 3: competing for attention, right.
[11:53] Speaker 4: I think they're competing for, in the most concrete way,
[11:56] Speaker 4: funding an influence, right. I mean they are both jockeying
[12:01] Speaker 4: for federal funds as well as the same corporate sponsors.
[12:05] Speaker 4: So both sites have listed some of the same corporate
[12:10] Speaker 4: sponsors on their websites John Deere, Oracle, Palenteer, Yeten Airlines, Exeger,
[12:16] Speaker 4: other corporations as sponsors on their websites. And I spoke
[12:21] Speaker 4: with US Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat in New
[12:24] Speaker 4: Jersey who sits on the America to fifty Commission and
[12:27] Speaker 4: has talked about how that competition for private donors has
[12:31] Speaker 4: really challenged America fifty because on the one hand, they're
[12:36] Speaker 4: competing with the organization that's backed by the President himself, right,
[12:39] Speaker 4: And so that's that's a big draw for a lot
[12:43] Speaker 4: of these donors, they're also competing for federal funding.
[12:47] Speaker 3: So in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act which was.
[12:51] Speaker 4: Passed last summer, that included in it was one hundred
[12:55] Speaker 4: and fifty million dollars for the two fifty ath celebrations,
[13:00] Speaker 4: much of which America twifty at the time expected to receive,
[13:05] Speaker 4: and as it turned out, it's only gotten about half
[13:07] Speaker 4: of what it says it was promised initially, and Freedom
[13:10] Speaker 4: fifty has drawn down at least twice as much as
[13:15] Speaker 4: they have from that amount.
[13:17] Speaker 2: How do both groups explain that why has Freedom two fifty,
[13:20] Speaker 2: the new Trump affiliated group, got so much more federal
[13:25] Speaker 2: funding than America two fifty.
[13:27] Speaker 4: Publicly, what America fifty will say is that they are
[13:30] Speaker 4: still waiting on funds that were promised to them, and
[13:33] Speaker 4: that they have an agreement in writing for these funds
[13:35] Speaker 4: but have not received them yet.
[13:38] Speaker 3: As far as Freedom fifty goes, you know, they have this.
[13:40] Speaker 4: Kind of special relationship through the National Park Foundation, and
[13:44] Speaker 4: you know, from my conversations with them, it does not
[13:47] Speaker 4: seem to be a challenge for them to kind of
[13:51] Speaker 4: you know, make work order requests and draw down the
[13:53] Speaker 4: funding that they want to get.
[13:55] Speaker 2: And there's also been some questions raised about, you know,
[13:58] Speaker 2: the ethics of some of these core sponsorships, the oversight
[14:01] Speaker 2: of some of these public monies. Can you say a
[14:04] Speaker 2: little bit more about that.
[14:06] Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
[14:06] Speaker 4: I mean, so there was a congressional hearing a few
[14:10] Speaker 4: months ago about Freedom to fifty, and you know, questions
[14:14] Speaker 4: being raised about where the money is coming from, how
[14:17] Speaker 4: exactly it.
[14:17] Speaker 3: Was created, it's leadership.
[14:21] Speaker 4: So just as one example, you know, January AI, which
[14:24] Speaker 4: is sort of a personal health app tracker app thing,
[14:29] Speaker 4: signed on as a sponsor of Freedom fifty shortly before
[14:33] Speaker 4: becoming one of the first apps available in the new
[14:37] Speaker 4: Medicare Directory of Services. And so, you know, watchdog groups
[14:41] Speaker 4: I think have raised questions about is there a kind.
[14:45] Speaker 3: Of quid pro quo happening here?
[14:47] Speaker 4: January I says these two things are totally unrelated. And then,
[14:51] Speaker 4: of course, perhaps most of all, there was a solicitation
[14:55] Speaker 4: package of The New York Times, first reported on a
[14:58] Speaker 4: couple of months ago, where Freedom fifty is basically saying, hey,
[15:04] Speaker 4: you know, donate several million dollars to organization and we
[15:07] Speaker 4: will give you direct access to the president.
[15:10] Speaker 2: In comments for Laura's story, Freedom two fifty said the
[15:13] Speaker 2: offer to donors was for presidential reception, not one on
[15:16] Speaker 2: one meetings. Freedom two fifty added that the organization is
[15:20] Speaker 2: quote sparking a unifying movement across all fifty states that
[15:24] Speaker 2: celebrates the American spirit and showcases our nation at its best.
[15:28] Speaker 2: But Laura says that getting all fifty states on board
[15:31] Speaker 2: was a challenge for one of Freedom two fifties most
[15:34] Speaker 2: visible events.
[15:35] Speaker 4: You know, the Great American State Fair pitched itself as
[15:38] Speaker 4: We're going to have all fifty states and all US
[15:41] Speaker 4: territories you know, on the mall represented in some way
[15:44] Speaker 4: promoting the best of their entrepreneurship and agriculture and kind
[15:48] Speaker 4: of cultural products in this kind of old time state
[15:52] Speaker 4: fair tradition. And a lot of states were just not
[15:55] Speaker 4: keen and participating.
[15:56] Speaker 3: And some of that came down to funding.
[15:58] Speaker 4: You know, they were really be asked to provide all
[16:02] Speaker 4: of the money, you know, for staffing and programming these
[16:04] Speaker 4: booths for two.
[16:05] Speaker 3: Weeks on the National Mall.
[16:07] Speaker 4: But also, you know, the same firm that planned the
[16:11] Speaker 4: January sixth rally to stop the Steel Rally on the
[16:14] Speaker 4: National Mall was also helping coordinate this event, and from
[16:17] Speaker 4: public records that I obtained through FOYA.
[16:20] Speaker 3: You know, it appeared that a number of.
[16:22] Speaker 4: States were actually wary of being involved for that very reason.
[16:27] Speaker 4: It made national headlines that shortly after the kind of
[16:30] Speaker 4: slate of musical acts was announced, almost all of them
[16:35] Speaker 4: or several of them pulled out or said they'd never
[16:37] Speaker 4: committed to participating in the first place.
[16:40] Speaker 2: And Laura, this isn't the first time that America's birthday
[16:43] Speaker 2: planning has been fraught, right, you wrote about the run
[16:46] Speaker 2: up to the Buy centennial and the public outcry after
[16:48] Speaker 2: the Nixon administration took over that planning process. Give us
[16:52] Speaker 2: that mini history really quickly, and what was significant to
[16:56] Speaker 2: you about that moment in the context of everything that
[16:59] Speaker 2: you've been reporting on today.
[17:01] Speaker 4: Grand Americans birthday parties affected by critiques about cronyism and
[17:09] Speaker 4: kind of over corporatization, and you know, all these things
[17:14] Speaker 4: that we're hearing about this year's celebration, This is nothing new.
[17:18] Speaker 4: All the same kind of accusations were in the air
[17:21] Speaker 4: around the nineteen seventy six by centennial and even in
[17:25] Speaker 4: celebrations before that, like generations ago. But I think what
[17:29] Speaker 4: is significant and instructive about the nineteen seventy six event
[17:34] Speaker 4: is that. Yes, you had you know, President Nixon, who
[17:37] Speaker 4: kind of inherited the celebration planning from his predecessor LBJ,
[17:42] Speaker 4: and he you know, replaced an existing commission with a
[17:46] Speaker 4: number of his kind of political friends and allies, and
[17:50] Speaker 4: there was a lot of outcry over that from the public.
[17:53] Speaker 4: There was also a great deal of outcry over the
[17:56] Speaker 4: kind of zeal that corporate America showed and you know,
[18:01] Speaker 4: showing off their kind of patriotic bona fides by you know,
[18:04] Speaker 4: branding everything from condoms to dry cleaning hangars with with
[18:08] Speaker 4: kind of red, white and blue flags and all of this.
[18:12] Speaker 2: Yeah, they nicknamed it the By Centennial, as in b
[18:16] Speaker 2: U Y Centennial.
[18:18] Speaker 4: The By Centennial, right exactly. What also may sound kind
[18:22] Speaker 4: of incredible for our age is that like the federal
[18:26] Speaker 4: government responded to that, and they, you know, the sort
[18:30] Speaker 4: of Nixon infused commission was disbanded and replaced, and ultimately
[18:35] Speaker 4: what the federal government did was kind of move in
[18:38] Speaker 4: a direction that was more supportive of celebrations and events
[18:42] Speaker 4: happening at the local level and at the state level.
[18:45] Speaker 4: But I think when you look back at the seventy
[18:48] Speaker 4: six event, you know, historians will say that this was
[18:51] Speaker 4: to an extent a success because people really were kind
[18:54] Speaker 4: of engaging with questions about, you know, the nation's history
[18:57] Speaker 4: and how it connects to the present. There was a
[18:59] Speaker 4: real demand I think as part of the kind of
[19:02] Speaker 4: like frustration around some of the plans, a frustration with
[19:06] Speaker 4: a solely kind of like tricorner hat red, White and
[19:09] Speaker 4: Blue telling. People wanted to know the women's version, you know,
[19:13] Speaker 4: people wanted to hear the perspective of Native Americans and
[19:16] Speaker 4: Black Americans. And so those sort of like threads of
[19:22] Speaker 4: engaging with history have clearly continued and we're still seeing
[19:26] Speaker 4: them today.
[19:27] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, bringing it to today, it almost feels
[19:31] Speaker 2: like two on the nose that in a country so polarized,
[19:34] Speaker 2: we have these two groups that are vying for influence,
[19:37] Speaker 2: competing over who gets to mark this occasion, but also
[19:40] Speaker 2: in a way over who gets to define America at
[19:44] Speaker 2: this key moment. To you, what does this story mean
[19:50] Speaker 2: or say about where America is at two hundred and
[19:53] Speaker 2: fifty years after its founding.
[19:56] Speaker 4: Reporting on these two separate organizations and just sort of
[19:59] Speaker 4: thinking about how they they almost do represent these two
[20:01] Speaker 4: visions of American politics says a lot.
[20:03] Speaker 3: About where we are. Right.
[20:05] Speaker 4: On the one hand, you've got this organization created by Congress.
[20:11] Speaker 4: Its output has been maybe not incredibly thrilling to a lot.
[20:15] Speaker 3: Of folks, pretty friendly to its.
[20:18] Speaker 4: Corporate sponsors, but not necessarily managing to attract the attention.
[20:23] Speaker 4: On the other hand, this organization that is much more
[20:25] Speaker 4: on the image of the President himself, right, and you
[20:28] Speaker 4: know who is a figure that is adored by some
[20:30] Speaker 4: people and who really repels many others. And so I
[20:36] Speaker 4: think just that symbolism, right of who wants to control
[20:40] Speaker 4: the narrative over where America is. It's two fiftieth birthday
[20:45] Speaker 4: says a lot.
[20:45] Speaker 3: About where we are as a country.
[20:47] Speaker 1: More broadly, this is the big take from Bloomberg News.
[20:54] Speaker 2: I'm Sarah Holder. The show is hosted by Me, David Gera,
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[21:24] Speaker 2: at Bloomberg dot Com Slash Podcast offer. Thanks for listening.
[21:29] Speaker 2: We'll be back on Monday.

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