Upcoming National Birthday Bash Must Rival All Past Celebrations
Editorial Board | July 4, 2025
(The Washington Times) — One year from today, America will observe its semiquincentennial. That’s a milestone worth celebrating, as few forms of government have lasted 250 years. Our republic’s longevity is a testament to the truth of the propositions set forth in 1776.
Donald Trump will rise to the occasion. When the Army knocked on his door, saying they wanted to do something for the 250th anniversary of the armed forces, the president took a personal interest in augmenting what would have otherwise been a modest undertaking.
Instead, he invited thousands of families to gather on the National Mall for a day of patriotic displays capped by a grand military parade showcasing the Army’s development over the years. Mr. Trump’s showmanship ensures America’s greatest birthday bash will have the pizazz it deserves.
One could only imagine how passionless the moment would be had matters turned out differently in November.
On July 3, 2026, the president will kick things off with a huge exhibition of the country’s accomplishments at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. He will then fly back to Washington for the main gala on the Fourth while the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission coordinates complementary soirees in each state.
This is a prime opportunity to rekindle lost civic virtue and bolster confidence in America’s future. A Fox News poll last month found that just 58% of Americans said they were proud of this nation. Mr. Trump’s return to the White House did add 13 points to last year’s dismal figure, but it ought to be much higher. Democrats are to blame for dragging down the total, with only 36% of lefties mustering any pride in the place they call home.
They don’t realize they are the beneficiaries of the summer of 1776. The Continental Congress began consideration of Richard Henry Lee’s resolution in June: “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”
Thomas Jefferson was given the task of elaborating. He explained that we were compelled to take this step because all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights that the distant monarch ignored. The Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, with 55 delegates affixing their names below John Hancock’s oversized signature.
John Adams was so enthusiastic about what he had just signed that he wrote a letter to his wife, Abigail, offering his famous Independence Day prediction.
“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival,” he wrote. “It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
For America’s 250th, Mr. Trump intends to check off each box, including the sporting events, and, more important, the solemn acts of devotion.
He explained during the campaign: “From the very beginning America has been a country sustained and strengthened by prayer, and by our communities of faith, as we chart a course toward the next 250 years, let us come together and rededicate ourselves as one nation, under God.”
