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WASHINGTON\u2014Behold the United States\u2019 250<\/span>th<\/span> birthday celebration, brought to you by a cavalcade of corporate behemoths, via Donald Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n And much of it will be paid for by you and me.<\/span><\/p>\n At least $103 million in taxpayer dollars were funneled to favorite Trump companies via no-bid contracts from the Trump-established celebration committee, Freedom 250. It has also collected tens of millions of dollars from the corporate class, the joint report by Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project reveals.<\/span><\/p>\n The exact amounts the corporations kicked in for Trump\u2019s 250<\/span>th<\/span> anniversary gala series of events are unknown because Freedom 250 is not a public body, but the mountains of dollars military contractors Lockheed (75% of its total revenue) and Martin Marietta (89%) get from the Pentagon are known.<\/span><\/p>\n Also, consider donor ExxonMobil. ExxonMobil is one of the big oil firms that has lobbied Congress and the Trump regime against combating climate change. Its CEO attended Trump\u2019s billion-dollar dinner for fossil fuel firms during the 2024 campaign. Then, Don Bergum, Secretary of the Interior, who was heavily involved in the oil and gas industry before taking that post, opened Alaska\u2019s previously protected North Slope to drilling, clearing the way for Exxon to bid on oil leases there. And Exxon faces 96 unfair labor practice charges before the National Labor Relations Board.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not the only notorious labor law breaker who\u2019s also a big giver to Trump\u2019s gala. Amazon, Starbucks, Target, and Walmart are all on the donor and\/or contract list, too. So is FedEx, which has waged a long and successful campaign to remove its tens of thousands of workers from protection under the National Labor Relations Act, moving them to the even weaker Railway Labor Act.<\/span><\/p>\n These are just examples, Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project say, of how the whole effort smells. The recipients are rife with potential conflicts of interest. The donors want to curry favor with the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n The groups accuse the Trump administration of \u201cengaging in a hostile takeover of the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Replacing American values with grift and self-dealing<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe 250th anniversary of the country should be a moment to reflect on the values of the nation,\u201d said Public Citizen Research Director Alan Zibel. \u201cApparently, the Trump administration is replacing those values with grift, self-dealing, and enriching friends with taxpayer dollars.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump administration has once more found an avenue to tilt the scales in favor of corporate America–especially the corporations willing to pay him tribute– even as millions struggle to believe in the dream of America on the eve of our 250th birthday,\u201d added Toni Aguilar Rosenthal of the Revolving Door Project.<\/span><\/p>\n Workers? Not represented. Unions? Forget it.<\/span><\/p>\n Corporations that break labor law and employ union busters? You bet they\u2019re there on the donors\/ grants list, including Walmart, Amazon, and Starbucks. So is Target, whose bosses quickly acquiesced to Trump\u2019s racist crusade against diversity, equity, and inclusion.<\/span><\/p>\n Other donors to Trump\u2019s Freedom 250 include all three Detroit-based automakers, Jeep, Amazon, and Southwest, American, and United Airlines. Add Anheuser-Busch, the Bank of New York, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, John Deere, CVS, Palantier, General Mills, KraftHeinz, Hilton Hotels, Coca Cola, and the New York Stock Exchange.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the last firms on the list is the Ultimate Fighting Championship company. They staged the June 14 bout under the looming steel arch on the White House lawn.<\/span><\/p>\n No-bid multimillion-dollar contracts were handed out like confetti by the Freedom 250 group. The Trump administration established it to co-opt and override the official gala panel, which Congress set up years ago, pre-Trump, to plan the 250<\/span>th<\/span> anniversary events.<\/span><\/p>\n Countering the Trump narrative<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt will likely fall largely on Black and Indigenous people to hold up a mirror to the nation and carve out space for accountability, honesty, and repair,\u201d the Black Liberation-Indigenous Society Collective told the <\/span>Non-Profit Quarterly<\/span><\/i> before hosting a meeting in Asheville, N.C., last September to begin planning how to counter the MAGA narrative.<\/span><\/p>\n “We know \ufb01rsthand that the creation of this nation happened at our ancestors\u2019 expense. The legacies of anti-Indigeneity and anti-Blackness live all around us. The nation\u2019s \ufb01rst sins were genocide and slavery, so our collective redemption is only possible through reckoning with and restitution for those harms. In other words, our solidarity and united insistence upon shared visions of justice are the balm and antidote. We are the medicine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n They aren\u2019t the only ones to turn their backs on Trump\u2019s gala. The state governments of Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Oregon, and North Carolina will not participate in what was planned to be the Great American State Fair, with exhibit booths lining the National Mall for every state and all six territories\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Massachusetts, of course, is where the American Revolution began. Pennsylvania is where the Declaration of Independence was written, debated, passed, and signed. They\u2019re planning their own celebrations. So is Oregon.<\/span><\/p>\n The 250<\/span>th<\/span> anniversary was barely mentioned at the recent AFL-CIO convention, and then usually in the context of Trump\u2019s threat to U.S. democracy. The rest of labor is taking a low-key attitude towards the 250<\/span>th<\/span> anniversary events.<\/span><\/p>\n So far, the Labor Heritage Foundation has listed only two 250<\/span>th<\/span> anniversary-linked events. Both are more positive\u2014and more democracy-oriented\u2014than Trump\u2019s corporate celebrations. The first was a 7 p.m. Eastern Time \u201cConcert for the First Amendment\u201d at the progressive Busboys and Poets bookstore at 14<\/span>th<\/span> Street and V Street N.W. on July 14.<\/span><\/p>\n The second is a virtual event on June 18 from 12:15 p.m.-12:45 p.m. Central Time: \u201cPullman on Parade: Celebrating America 1892 and 250.\u201d That event focuses on the massive resistance of American Railway Union members to wage cuts by railroad magnate George Pullman that took place alongside the 1892 World\u2019s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. <\/span>Advance registration<\/span><\/a> is required for the session.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDiscover how these two pivotal moments connect as we explore what changed over the years and which traditions endured,\u201d Labor Heritage posted.<\/span> \u201cJoin us as we examine the past, reflect on the present, and imagine possibility for the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n We hope you appreciated this article. At\u00a0People\u2019s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading\u00a0People\u2019s World\u00a0and the stories we bring you, please\u00a0support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today<\/a>. Thank you!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n
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The 250th anniversary of the United States is being overshadowed by taxpayer-funded no-bid contracts benefiting Trump-linked corporations, totaling at least $103 million. Freedom 250, the Trump-established committee, has drawn significant corporate donations from firms like ExxonMobil and Amazon, known for labor law violations. Critics, including Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project, accuse the Trump administration of undermining American values through corporate grift. Meanwhile, several states are opting out of official celebrations, choosing instead to commemorate the anniversary independently, focusing on justice and democracy rather than corporate interests. Labor organizations are also downplaying Trump’s events.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u2014Behold the United States\u2019 250th birthday celebration, brought to you by a cavalcade of corporate behemoths, via Donald Trump. And much of it will be paid for by you and me. At least $103 million in taxpayer dollars were funneled to favorite Trump companies via no-bid contracts from the Trump-established celebration committee, Freedom 250. It has also collected tens of…","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":2735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[938,510,1168,825,1169,447,250,201],"class_list":["post-2734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-capitalism","tag-corporate-greed","tag-corporations","tag-corporatism","tag-july-4","tag-trump","tag-trump-administration","tag-u-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}