A real president does not insert himself in the center ring of the nation’s 250th birthday celebration. It is not about him! I remember the country’s bicentennial but don’t remember it being about President Ford. Ford traveled to several historic sites, including starting the day at a flag-raising ceremony atop Mars Hill Mountain, Maine, at 4:33 a.m. where sunrise first touched American soil on July 4, 1976.

Trump is determined to make our nation’s celebration all about himself. The bipartisan “America 250” Congressional Committee has allocated money and has been planning events for several years. Trump decided to launch his own celebration by funneling off millions of taxpayer dollars for his “nonpartisan,” Trumpcentric “Freedom 250.” Since most of the entertainers for his event have dropped out, he is declaring that he will turn it into a taxpayer-funded Trump rally. Let’s all bow down to our new king after 250 years without one!

We’re another step closer to authoritarianism as Trump trashes our laws and the Constitution. He’s taken down information about our true, sometimes shameful, history. He tries to take away the constitutional rights of citizens and disregard the “will of the people.” He’s destroyed parts of “The People’s House” and our national monuments and parks are defunded. So much for “We the people.”

Meanwhile, the feckless Republican Congress and (once nonpartisan) Supreme Court just keep giving him more power to do these things to our once great country. Our founders are rolling in their graves.

Barb Osen
Orr’s Island