You’ve probably already put America’s 250th birthday behind you. What should have been a terrific bipartisan celebration of our nation’s history was hijacked by President Donald Trump, who turned it into a right-wing, low-rent catastrophe and a birthday party for himself.
Not only that, but he also hijacked your tax dollars, diverting funds from the actual bipartisan group, America250, to Freedom 250, the sleazy “public-private partnership” run by the White House that essentially sidelined the real event and gave us Trump’s pathetic events.
An arena is set up outside of the White House for Trump’s Freedom 250 UFC fights.AP
But apparently Trump didn’t divert enough taxpayer dollars, so the administration is back—hat in hand—demanding another $10 million “to recoup costs associated with support of events celebrating America’s Semiquincentennial.”
How could Trump have possibly blown through the $150 million in taxpayer money? And what about the part where Trump bragged that private donations would cover any gap?
The whole thing was shady from the jump, with a private company, Event Strategies, run by former Trump campaign aides, getting a sweet profit to organize the terrible events rather than having government personnel do it.
Indeed, the Trump administration has been very good to Event Strategies, which also handled the logistics of Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, rally and has received $13 million in sweet no-bid contracts since Trump retook office.
Related | Wait, taxpayers are going to pay how much for Trump’s dumb ballroom?
But according to the administration, they just had to spend so much money on security for all of these big special events.
“Given the elevated security threats against high-profile events in Washington, D.C. … an elevated security posture was needed to ensure the safety of the public at these events. This funding would help address the expenditures associated with the elevated security posture,” the Interior Department wrote.
So what we’re really talking about here is that the government wants to recoup its costs for what it spent to coddle Trump, wrapping him in a little security blanket for his big, special birthday UFC fight, partisan rally, and fireworks fiasco.
Because let’s face it: it isn’t that the millions were spent on these events.
Alexis Wilkins sings the National Anthem before Trump speaks at the opening of the Great American State Fair on June 24.AP
The biggest star who performed at the Freedom 250 rally was FBI Director Kash Patel’s fake country singer girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, after all of the past-their-prime musicians bailed upon learning that it wasn’t really a nonpartisan celebration of America.
So what could that cost? Did we pay a premium for Wilkins to twangbellow the anthem?
Well, we actually did probably have to pay to fly her there on the official FBI jet, along with her official SWAT team, because that’s a thing we have now: SWAT teams for the FBI director’s girlfriend, on your dime.
The Great American State Fair certainly couldn’t have cost that much, given that it was mostly just booths that states were required to pay to furnish and a Temu Trump Arch.
And, of course, since basically nobody came to the thing, the administration didn’t rack up costs entertaining people. It’s just money for Trump, as always.
Honestly, the only surprising thing about Trump’s latest cash grab is that he isn’t using it to push for his top secret bulletproof ballroom/drone port/military installation/hospital/indoor golf course.
But give it time. He’ll probably get there.
We’ll get straight to the point: The financial hardships that Daily Kos is facing this year are tough.
We continue to be paywall-free. We continue to be supported by our readers, not billionaires or corporations. But we need to bring in more revenue. We are leaning on our community more than ever to help make ends meet.
Power matters.