Trump’s ‘Freedom 250’ comes to KS and MO this summer. It’s a state fair for corruption, crypto-fascism, and A.I. slop

Freedom 250 Media Release

Donald Trump’s corruption is so glaring and obvious. In fact, I miss when he tried to at least put in effort to his deceits. Now, he and his cronies have gotten used to not being held accountable. Take, for example, a group called Freedom 250, a nonprofit with the mission to “celebrate” the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence from the British Empire.

The group seems harmless, right? Wrong! Freedom 250 is a public-private partnership that is tied to the Trump administration. For those who have absolutely no idea of what I am writing about, a public-private partnership is typically a long-term relationship between a government agency or group of agencies with a private sector organization to carry out a particular set of services or a specified function. Risks and financial responsibilities are often shifted away from the agencies.

For example, the National Park Foundation is a well-known public-private partnership operating as the charitable organization of the National Park Service (NPS), a federal agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The foundation was established by an act of Congress in 1967 and is required by the law to feature the Interior Secretary as the chair of the board of directors and the head of the NPS as secretary of the board. Interestingly enough, it is Freedom 250 and its fiscal oversight that falls under the purview of the National Park Foundation board of directors.

Start to do the math. Freedom 250 is nothing more than an indoctrination arm of Trump’s White House.

And, in all honesty, Freedom 250 is a shithole of an organization.

Case in point: Donald Trump’s “Great American State Fair” hissy fit. As a reminder, Freedom 250 announced a lineup of music artists for a series of events it has planned on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Performers and musical groups like Bret Michaels, Martina McBride, The Commodores, and Young MC all canceled their appearances at the so-called “Great American State Fair” concert series planned from June 25 to July 10. The concerts were part of a larger “series of once-in-a-generation events for America’s momentous anniversary.”

Freedom 250 Media Release

According to Freedom 250’s announcement of the event series, “these events include state and territory pavilions celebrating all 56 states and territories, specialty exhibits, live performances, interactive experiences, and classic fair attractions.” But the line that gets me the most concerned is that they will be featuring “educational exhibits and immersive digital experiences will bring the ‘Story of America’ to life for guests of all ages.”

And what is amazing is the hissy fit that transcends actual event planning. Trump was so mad that people didn’t want to participate in his flops-of-the-1990s-and-wash-outs answer to real music festivals, he decided to cancel the concert series entirely and bring in a replacement act. The replacement act is Donald Trump, hosting a Make America Great Again rally for his die-hard supporters with musical appearances by the 83-year-old country singer Lee Greenwood and a variety of musical groups tied to the United States military. This is simply mindless pandering.

If we go back to earlier this year, there has been much controversy surrounding how Trump’s Department of the Interior, via the National Park Foundation and the charity’s “wholly owned subsidiary,” Freedom 250 LLC, with Trump loyalist and former software company executive Keith Krach appointed as the entity’s chief executive officer. In fact, the research director Alan Zibel at the progressive-leaning consumer watchdog group Public Citizen notes that Krach was at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, soliciting donations for the Freedom 250 from representatives of foreign governments and other international actors. A clear campaign for funding to fill Freedom 250’s coffers with foreign dollars.

Additionally, the group has advertised hefty sponsorship packages for private companies to purchase. In return, those sponsors receive VIP access to events commemorating the country’s semiquincentennial and providing direct access to the Oval Office, President Trump, and his closest advisers. One criticism of the scheme, which was highlighted in investigative journalism and through the work of Democratic investigators for the House Natural Resources Committee, is that this presents an oligarchy-esque pay-to-play scheme. According to internal documents, sponsorship packages can cost from $500,000 to $10 million, featuring a variety of “benefits” tied to the group’s programs.

Freedom 250 website with calls for participation, hosts, and event volunteers

Considering the gutting of the music lineup, one would question whether Freedom 250 would be concerned with its sponsors and whether the pot of money is being misused. But, if we look at the confirmed sponsors, it reveals a wide array of interests from predominantly companies that directly benefit from the Trump administration’s deregulation campaigns and right-wing and far-right think tanks and activist groups. For example, companies listed as sponsors include the UFC, IndyCar, ExxonMobil, Oracle, and Peter Thiel’s Palantir.

The organizations that are far more ideologically explicit are considered “participating partners.” Partners involved with the Freedom 250 programming include known anti-government and anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups like the MAGA-aligned American First Policy Institute, the fascist Moms for Liberty, the Museum of the Bible, the National Religious Broadcasters, the WallBuilders, and the insufferable PragerU.

All of this mixed together demonstrates a clear bias in sponsorship and the sourcing of funds. One program of the Freedom 250 effort that really grinds my gears is the so-called “Freedom Truck” initiative. The Freedom Truck is literally what it sounds like, but dumber: Freedom 250 invested in the truck program to distribute the historical experience it designed to tell the story of the founding of the United States via the Declaration of Independence and drafting of the United States Constitution.

These trucks tour the United States with planned exhibits at State Fairs and other similar festivals and events across the country. Freedom Trucks are scheduled to appear at the Kansas State Fair in August and the Missouri State Fair and Bass Pro Shops in Springfield, Missouri, in September.

Freedom 250’s history exhibits, however, are controversial for various reasons. Chiefly, the so-called “historical exhibits” are artificial intelligence-generated versions of the Founding Fathers and Framers of the Constitution produced by the PragerU group. These exhibits are scant on the racism and white supremacy that characterize our country’s history. A review of the material shows a literal whitewashing of all of the groups of people who were key to the country’s founding and the American Revolutionary War. In fact, the AI-generated exhibits only feature one Black person, the groundbreaking poet Phillis Wheatley—no mention of Prince Hall, James Forten, James Armistead Lafayette, and Cyrus Bustill. Freedom 250 also overlooks the fact that the American Revolutionary War was a true civil war involving multiple countries, dozens of nationalities and ethnicities, and fighters from more than 80 Native American nations.

The signing of the Declaration of Independence, which Freedom 250 minimizes, was a clear act of sedition and treachery against the British crown. A true understanding of our nation’s founding needs to consider the violence, the racism, the division, and prejudices that still exist quarter of a millennium later. And this is not the agenda of Freedom 250. Based on the information I shared in this column, I would remind you all to be wary of literal magic tricks and pure falsified slop.

Michael McGrady Jr is a political columnist for The Kansas City Pitch.

Freedom 250 Media Release