WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is formally kicking off celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary by working to get the country excited again – about himself.
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The president is hosting a rally Wednesday night on Washington’s National Mall. Festivities will include a flyover by stealth bombers, military bands, singer Lee Greenwood of “God Bless the USA” fame and a Trump speech.
It comes as Trump works to convince Americans ahead of critical November midterm elections that he’s put the unpopular Iran war in the rearview mirror, with oil prices easing as the Strait of Hormuz has started to reopen in the wake of an interim deal to end the war with Tehran.
The rally is kicking off weeks of celebrations about America and its 1776 founding as part of “The Great American State Fair” on the mall, the national park that stretches from the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial.
But Trump’s appearance onstage was only announced after several musicians – including Young MC, Martina McBride and the Commodores – canceled their concerts because of concerns the event had become politicized. The president stepped into the void as he hyped his own ability to command a crowd.
“I am thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History,” Trump posted on social media about his plan to be the event’s headliner.
PHOTOS: Trump turns America 250 kickoff into a campaign-style rally on the National Mall
Country singer Alexis Wilkins, the longtime girlfriend of FBI Director Kash Patel, posted on X that she too would be performing.
Turnout was robust but crowds were not nearly as large as Trump predicted in the hours before he took the stage. Still, some attendees traveled from far away, including Karen and Brian Ontrap, who drove 500-plus miles from northwest Ohio with their children.
They planned the trip in January to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary and, for some in the group, see Washington for the first time.
Standing in the shade near the stage before the president spoke, Karen Ontrap said the pair support the president “100%.” They were among the early arrivals to the section of the National Mall that was cordoned off, with a concert-style stage decked in U.S. flags at one end and a mock White House exterior at the other.
Trump is pressing the case that he’s made America better
Trump has struggled to deliver the presidency that he advertised to voters – causing his approval rating to dwell at a low 37%, according to the most recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research polling.
Democrats say his botched repairs to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool and the resulting algae outbreak are a sign that he’s spending taxpayer money on vanity projects instead of the nation’s legacy.
Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., said the Trump-affiliated group organizing the 250th anniversary was selling access to special interests and redrafting the nation’s founding to the president’s liking, based on documents he presented at a congressional hearing earlier this year.
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“It should be about bringing us together,” Huffman said. “He’s trying to make this 250th celebration all about him.”
Trump’s fondness for showmanship has not been a match for public anxiety about his presidency. Only 33% of U.S. adults approve of his economic leadership, with favorability at 40% on immigration and 34% on Iran.
“It’s clear that Trump’s preoccupations in his second term – from Iran to the Washington reflecting pool – are not those of most members of his base, let alone other Americans,” said Daniel Treisman, a politics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “That explains his unusually low approval ratings.”
Trump’s rallies can only help so much without improvements on inflation
Inflation is still higher than what Trump inherited and it has been outpacing wage growth. The budget deficit remains on a path upward that keeps interest rates high. Investments in artificial intelligence are driving growth, but they come with fears of middle-class job losses such that the construction of data centers needed for America’s tech economy have become controversial politically.
Trump has fueled dramas over tariffs, NATO, immigration, ownership of Greenland and his own renovations of iconic buildings and monuments in Washington – generating a flood of controversy that has pushed things the administration sees as accomplishments – such as the capture of Venezuela’s former leader Nicolás Maduro – off the public radar.
James Snyder, a Harvard University professor, has partnered on research showing that past rallies have helped Trump turn out his supporters to vote, in the short-term. But he noted that Wednesday’s rally comes more than four months before the November midterm elections, and is unlikely to have a politically strategic benefit for Republicans.
“I would not expect that the rally would have any clear effect on the 2026 midterm elections,” Snyder said.
The midterms weren’t a concern for Joe and Natalie Cox, who took the Washington area’s subway from Arlington, Virginia, “out of curiosity and to mark an historic occasion,” Joe said.
Joe Cox, a retired Army officer and military contractor, and Natalie, who worked for 30 years at the Red Cross, suggested the events planned for Washington were a time for the country to come together.
“It feels like a new spirit of unity,” Natalie Cox said.
Joe, who served overseas on multiple deployments including Iraq and Afghanistan, said the Iran War had been long overdue.
He also said its conclusion, despite some setbacks, was going better than more recent wars.
“It had to be done,” Joe said of the Iran War. “I’ll be glad to no longer hear ‘Death to America.’”
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