On USA’s 250th, Even the Party Planners Are Divided

Summary

Podcast Summary: "On USA’s 250th, Even the Party Planners Are Divided"

Podcast: Big Take (Bloomberg and iHeartPodcasts)
Episode Date: July 3, 2026
Main Guests: David Gura (host), Laura Bliss (Senior Editor, Bloomberg Businessweek)
Theme: The divided and contentious planning of the United States' 250th birthday, reflecting deeper political and cultural rifts in the country

---

Episode Overview

This episode investigates the contentious and divided planning behind the United States' 250th birthday celebrations. Through an in-depth conversation with Bloomberg’s Laura Bliss, the hosts explore how two competing federally-funded commissions—America250 and Freedom250—encapsulate the nation’s political polarization, with each group vying for control, funding, and the narrative of what it means to celebrate America's past and present.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Scene: Empty Celebrations on the National Mall

• On the ground at the "Great American State Fair" in Washington D.C., Laura Bliss notes the lackluster turnout and ambiance, describing the fair as "the Great American State Embarrassment" due to sparse attendance and uninspired programming.
  • Quote: “I can definitely say no one's here. It sucks.” — Laura Bliss (02:12)

The Split: Two Rival Groups Emerge

• America250:
  • Created by a 2016 Act of Congress, intended as a bipartisan, broad-reaching commission to plan national celebrations.
    • Structure: 4 Democrats, 4 Republicans, 16 private citizens.
    • Early struggles included internal feuding and a high-profile lawsuit alleging cronyism and mismanagement during the Biden administration (06:10).
• Freedom250:
  • Established in 2025 under the Trump administration, as an offshoot of the National Park Foundation to deliver events more aligned with the administration’s vision.
  • Its creation and funding remain opaque, drawing criticism from watchdog groups and Congressional Democrats (08:25).

Contrasting Visions, Contrasting Celebrations

• America250’s Approach:
  • Decentralized, politically neutral, focusing on “palatable, anodyne” programming:
    • National volunteer campaign
    • Essay contests with national park trips
    • Flag-raising week and a time capsule
    • Branded airstreams at Walmarts, heavy corporate sponsorships
  • Quote: “Part of what it reflects is a very kind of palatable, pretty anodyne, not gonna anger people and maybe not gonna totally thrill, you know, a lot of folks either.” — Laura Bliss (10:54)
• Freedom250’s Approach:
  • Highly centralized, high-profile, explicitly “MAGA-coded” events:
    • National days of prayer (Christian-infused)
    • UFC cage fight on the White House lawn
    • The Great American State Fair
    • “Freedom Trucks”: 16-wheelers with conservative-leaning patriotic exhibits
    • Strong featuring of President Trump in programming (12:44)
  • Quote: “The Freedom 250 people will say that America 250 was ultimately not willing to kind of work with them to achieve the President's vision.” — Laura Bliss (07:35)

Competition for Corporate and Federal Resources

• Both groups court the same sponsors—John Deere, Oracle, Palantir, United Airlines, Exeger—and compete for a $150 million federal appropriations pot. Freedom250, via its presidential ties, has drawn down much more funding despite America250's original expectations (16:13).
• Ethics scrutiny arises over donor packages promising access to the President and questions about sponsors' ties to public benefits.
  • Example: January AI, after sponsoring Freedom250, becomes available in Medicare’s directory, raising conflict of interest concerns (17:56).

Widespread Hesitation and Fallout

• The association of Freedom250 events with controversial Trump-aligned event planners (linked to January 6) prompts some states and artists to refuse participation at the State Fair; multiple headliners pull out after being listed without commitment (19:25).
  • Quote: “A number of states were actually wary of being involved for that very reason.” — Laura Bliss (19:13)

Historical Context: U.S. Semiquincentennial ≈ Bicentennial Redux?

• Bliss outlines similar controversies during the 1976 Bicentennial: Nixon’s interventions, “cronyism,” over-corporatization (“the Buycentennial”), and public outcry prompted more local, bottom-up programming (21:00).
• Yet, that era also generated deeper historical reflection, including calls for representation of women and minorities—a thread echoing into current debates (22:08).

What the Rivalry Says About America at 250

• The two organizing committees mirror America’s polarization, both contending to define the narrative—who controls the nation’s story at this critical milestone. The debate echoes in the lack of consensus, corporate influence, and each group’s respective limitations.
  • Quote: “They almost do represent these two visions of American politics... just that symbolism, right, of who wants to control the narrative... says a lot about where we are as a country.” — Laura Bliss (23:45)

---

Highlighted Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The Great American State Embarrassment.” — Laura Bliss (02:41)
• “During the Biden administration, for example, four America250 employees brought a lawsuit against their bosses, accusing cronyism, self dealing, mismanagement of funds.” — David Gura summing up (05:59)
• “Freedom250 is a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Park Foundation—which sounds kind of odd.” — Laura Bliss on funding opacity (08:48)
• “In a statement, America250’s current chair, Rosie Rios, said…they recorded more than 10 million volunteer hours for America Gifts.” — David Gura (11:19)
• “They're competing for attention, right? I think they're competing for... funding and influence.” — Laura Bliss (15:38)
• “Donate several million dollars to our organization and we will give you direct access to the president.” — Laura Bliss describes the controversial donor package (18:39)
• “The Buycentennial.” — David Gura referencing the ‘76 branding critiques (22:02)

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:59 — Scene-setting: National Mall, empty fairgrounds
• 03:50 — Introduction of the two planning groups and their rivalry
• 05:16 — Origins and purpose of America250
• 07:27 — Trump administration’s changes and formation of Freedom250
• 08:25 — Mystery of Freedom250’s structure and funding
• 10:04 — America250’s decentralized, noncontroversial programming
• 11:37 — Freedom250’s highly political, attention-grabbing events
• 15:30 — Stakes: Competition for corporate sponsorship and federal dollars
• 17:56 — Ethics concerns with fundraising and donor perks
• 19:25 — States and entertainers pull out of Freedom250 events
• 20:35 — Comparison to the 1976 Bicentennial and public backlash
• 23:17 — Reflection: What this contest says about American identity at 250

---

Insights and Takeaways

• America’s 250th birthday is less a unified celebration and more a battleground for political, cultural, and financial influence.
• Two federally backed organizations, each aligned with a political faction, are both struggling with their own legitimacy and impact, mirroring America’s broader polarization.
• The heavily branded, sometimes hollow spectacles and corporate sponsorships provoke public and political skepticism.
• The rivalry itself becomes the most representative aspect of America’s present, questioning who gets to define national milestones and identity.
• Past conflicts (notably the 1976 Bicentennial) reveal that tension, public critique, and bottom-up initiatives are recurring themes in how Americans grapple with their history.

---

For listeners who missed the episode, this summary captures the division, controversies, and symbolism of America’s 250th birthday party planning, using direct quotes and context to showcase both the absurdities and deeper meaning behind the nation’s big birthday.

Transcript

[Nathan Hager]

When you're running a business, the best days are the ones where priorities stay on track. For midsize and large companies, risk can affect multiple parts of the organization at once, from property and liability to cyber and regulatory challenges. At that level, managing risk becomes an ongoing discipline. At the Hartford, the focus is on helping businesses manage risk before it turns into something more disruptive. And when losses do happen, that work is paired with insurance coverage shaped by years of underwriting, risk engineering and claims experience. Learn more@the Hartford.com riskmitigation policies provided by Hartford Fire Insurance Company and its property and casualty affiliates, Hartford, Connecticut the thing

[IBM Narrator]

about AI for business? It may not automatically fit the way your business works. At IBM, we've seen this firsthand. But by embedding AI across hr, IT and procurement processes, we've reduced costs by millions, slashed repetitive tasks, and freed thousands of hours for strategic work. Now we're helping companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business. Let's create smarter business.

[Chase Bank Narrator]

IBM when you own your own business, you own every decision. Now own the card that rewards you for it. Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business is a pay in full card that elevates your travel experience and offers premium benefits that will take your business to the next level. Sapphire Reserve for business offers 8x points on all purchases through Chase Travel, 3x points on social media and search engine advertising, airport lounge access, and more. Chase Sapphire Reserved for business, it's the card that gives back all you put in. Learn [e-mail] ReserveBusiness Chase for Business make more of what's yours. Accounts subject to credit approval restrictions and limitations apply. Cards are issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank. Naomi Member, FDIC Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts

[David Gura]

Radio News Right now on the national mall in Washington, D.C. a birthday party for America is supposed to be in full swing.

[Laura Bliss]

Being here at the Great American State

[David Gura]

Fair in the nation's capital, I can

[Laura Bliss]

definitely say no one's here. It sucks.

[David Gura]

It's not packed, but you guys have

[IBM Narrator]

to understand this is like three football fields here that this fair is on.

[David Gura]

The Great American State Fair is a 16 day event meant to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Photos, videos and reporting from the scene show people have had mixed experiences there.

[Nathan Hager]

Here we go. Rodeo 250 we're at the great American

[Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator]

State Fair and as someone from the

[Laura Bliss]

Midwest, I would like to have a word with whoever had the audacity to

[Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator]

give it that name.

[Laura Bliss]

The Great American State Embarrassment the Lackluster

[David Gura]

fair is just one of many semiquincentennial events that have been planned in the lead up to July 4th. And Laura Bliss, a senior editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, says there's turned out to be quite a range.

[Laura Bliss]

A ball drop in Times Square, a concert at the LA Coliseum, a fleet

[David Gura]

of 16 wheelers featuring a video message

[Laura Bliss]

from the president, a national volunteerism initiative,

[David Gura]

a day of national prayer. If these celebrations seem a little disjointed, that's because they're the product of not one, but two federally funded party planning organizations with competing visions that are as polarized as America itself. One is called America250, an offshoot of a semiquincentennial commission that Congress created all the way back in 2016. And the other is called Freedom 250, which the Trump administration set up last year to throw more MAGA coded semi quincentennial events. Laura just published a story in BusinessWeek that dives deep into both of these groups.

[Laura Bliss]

It is kind of a bit of a dichotomy, I think you could say, of a fairly quiet sort of somewhat decentralized, kind of politically neutral organization.

[David Gura]

That's America 250 to 1 that is

[Laura Bliss]

very much molded in the image of the President.

[David Gura]

Freedom 250 is the group behind the fair and the trucks. For months these groups have been jockeying for influence and funding. And now that the big birthday is finally here, how did this two party party system pan out? And what does the unofficial rivalry itself say about the nation 250 years after its founding? I'm Sarah Holder and this is the big take from Bloomberg News today on the show Happy Birthday America. How planning for the U.S. s 250th became tangled in allegations of mismanagement and partisanship. Laura, before there were these two competing groups, there was just one, the America 250 foundation, which was set up by the US Semiquincentennial Commission. When exactly was it created and what was it supposed to do?

[Laura Bliss]

So the U.S. semiquincentennial Commission was created by an act of Congress in 2016. It was under President Obama to make sure that America's 250th birthday party was a smashing success.

[David Gura]

The commission was made up of four Democrats and four Republican members of Congress, a along with 16 private citizens chosen by legislators.

[Laura Bliss]

You know, the vision was that this group of people representing both sides of the aisle were going to put something together that reflected the country.

[David Gura]

But the commission got off to a rocky start.

[Laura Bliss]

There were a lot of tensions, a lot of kind of feuding on the commission very early on that potentially set it back to some extent. And so some of its fundraising goals and that kind of thing.

[David Gura]

Yeah, I mean, you reported on some of those early controversies. During the Biden administration, for example, 4America 250 employees brought a lawsuit against their bosses. Tell us a little bit about that.

[Laura Bliss]

I think it was 2022 that four former employees of America 250 filed a lawsuit accusing organization's leadership of cronyism, self dealing, mismanagement of funds. There were allegations about law having to pay out invoices for work that was never done. And eventually these parties did settle.

[David Gura]

In a filing at the time, Attorneys for America 250 said that the lawsuit failed to lay out any cognizable claim.

[Laura Bliss]

I think America250 would say this is under previous leadership, but nevertheless, I think you can point to that and just sort of see that there were problems organizationally that may have kind of slowed down the momentum in terms of planning an actual celebration.

[David Gura]

Then came the election of Donald Trump. America 250 had already gotten the ball rolling, but now a new president was in charge. At first, it looked like the Trump administration and the America250 team were going to be able to work together. America250 even sponsored Trump's birthday military parade and helped put on a cryptocurrency conference featuring Trump's sons. But pretty soon, the visions of the Trump administration and America 250 started to splinter.

[Laura Bliss]

The administration replaced the executive director with a very, very young former Fox News producer who was fired not that long after swapping out some of the consulting groups that were working with America 250 with firms like Event Strategies, Inc. Which is best known for organizing the January 6th rally at the Capitol in 2021 to stop the steel rally. Eventually, the kind of Trump administration folks largely went their own, set up this other entity, Freedom to 50, to basically achieve what the president wanted. Freedom to 50 people will say that America 250 was ultimately not willing to kind of work with them to achieve the President's vision. America 250 people will say, you know, they were trying to take over the organization. And, you know, we basically wouldn't let that happen.

[David Gura]

So just at a basic level, how was Freedom250 created, and what do we know about how it's funded?

[Laura Bliss]

I mean, these are great questions that we actually don't have a lot of clear answers to. And I think that that is core to the criticisms that have been raised by Democrats in Congress and watchdog groups about this organization. So what we do know is that Freedom250 is a wholly owned subsidiary of the National park foundation. Which sounds kind of odd.

[David Gura]

Yeah. Why is that?

[Laura Bliss]

The National park foundation is right. Is a very well established, long standing nonprofit partner, National Park Service, which means Congress recognizes it as a foundation that can raise money and kind of do supportive work for this federal agency, essentially. The National park foundation says that the National Park Service, which of course is run by, overseen by the Secretary of Interior, Doug Burgum, asked the foundation, again, their official partner, to set up this Freedom250 LLC as essentially an entity to kind of hold and transfer money. And I should say, like much like America 2:50, that has included both federal funding as well as privately raised funds. How much we don't know exactly.

[David Gura]

In a comment for Laura's story, a National park foundation spokesperson said any funds received or spent by Freedom250 will be accounted for through the nonprofit's annual financial reporting processes. The most visible difference between the two groups is how they've approached planning for the big birthday.

[Laura Bliss]

On the America community side, it's tent pole programming, I would say, is largely these kind of decentralized events. So that includes a grand volunteerism initiative where they're trying to sort of break a new record in the number of volunteer hours logged by Americans. They have sponsored an essay writing contest, awarding grade schoolers a visit to a national park. There's a national week of flag raising. They're going to be burying a time capsule at Independence hall in Philadelphia. They are towing America 250 branded Airstream trailers to Walmarts across the nation behind Dodge Rams. And on top of that, they've got like lots and lots of in kind corporate sponsorships where you'll see the American 50 logo on Coca Cola can or Southwest Airlines planes. I think part of what it reflects is a very kind of palatable, pretty anodyne, not gonna anger people and maybe not gonna totally thrill, you know, a lot of folks either. Yeah, I think that's what the critics of this organization would say, that they've kind of struggled to capture attention, you know, with some of these initiatives.

[David Gura]

In a statement, America 250's current chair, Rosie Rios said she's incredibly proud of the moment Commission has achieved with events like the America 250 ball drop in Times Square. Among other things, she said the group recorded more than 10 million volunteer hours for America Gifts.

[Laura Bliss]

And then on the Freedom 50 side, you have more of the events that you've probably been reading and hearing about. Right. So in May There was the National Day of Rededication, a rededication to 50, which was a heavily Christian infused day of national prayer on the Mall featuring members of the Trump Cabinet. There was also the Grand UFC cage fight on the White House lawn, which actually was branded. Freedom to 50 was not technically linked to the organization, but they lend their name out to many of the other initiatives that the Trump administration has supported on its own. There's the Great American State Fair, which is happening right now. There are what are called Freedom Trucks, which are a federally funded set of 16 wheelers Towing exhibits on the nation's history, created by conservative think tanks essentially, and also pretty heavily featuring the President himself amidst the telling.

[David Gura]

That's a helpful image. The America 250 airstreams and the essay writing contests versus the freedom trucks. Yeah, clear contrast.

[Laura Bliss]

Pretty, pretty clear contrast.

[David Gura]

Responding to Laura's reporting on Freedom 250, the Department of the Interior said its employees were excited to participate in the events, adding, quote, it is bizarre that such a historic event celebrating our amazing country is being villainized by the liberal legacy media. After the break, more from Bloomberg Businessweek's Laura Bliss on allegations of Independence Day cronyism from 1976 to 2026.

[Laura Bliss]

Get the news you need in just 15 minutes.

[Nathan Hager]

Start your day with Bloomberg Daybreak, the podcast with a global view on the stories that matter. I'm Nathan Hager.

[Laura Bliss]

And I'm Karen Moss. Join us each morning for curated stories on current events, politics, business and foreign

[Nathan Hager]

relations, plus one conversation on the day's biggest developments, all in just 15 minutes.

[Laura Bliss]

Subscribe to Bloomberg Daybreak for a precise, thoughtful take on the stories that matter.

[Nathan Hager]

Listen to Bloomberg Daybreak each morning on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen.

[Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator]

A decade ago, the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil.

[Nathan Hager]

So we met with a lot of larger farmers, went from Bahia to Tocatines to Mato Grosso.

[Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator]

He brought a team of executives. They were gonna help the country get in on a gold rush.

[Nathan Hager]

Carbon and its derivatives are gonna be really the next great commodity that the globe's gonna trade.

[Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator]

But back home in Iowa, trouble was brewing.

[Laura Bliss]

If you live in Iowa, your land, your water and your voice could all be at risk, thanks to a man named Bruce Rastetter.

[Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator]

Now people are questioning if his climate solutions have anything to do with climate at all.

[Nathan Hager]

Gotta give Bruce and the guys credit. They're Republicans. They don't give a about any of this.

[Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator]

Now on this season of drilled carbon cowboys, the story of how the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the King of Corn in Brazil and what it tells us about the limits of technology and markets to solve the climate crisis. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Maria Hinojosa]

It's Latino usa. I'm Maria Hinojosa. I sit down with New York City Mayor Zora Mandani to talk about sports, immigration, politics, and the serious question of what makes a great New York city taco. But Mr. Mayor, as a Mexican, what have I done? What makes the best taco in New York City?

[Nathan Hager]

Oh, my God.

[Maria Hinojosa]

Listen to Latino USA on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[David Gura]

Laura, why does it matter that there are two separate semi quincentennial groups that have emerged? What exactly are they competing for?

[Laura Bliss]

Yeah, that's such a good question. I think they're competing for attention, right? I think they're competing for in the most concrete way of funding and influence, right? I mean, they are both jockeying for federal funds as well as the same corporate corporate sponsors. So both sites have listed some of the same corporate sponsors on their websites. John Deere, Oracle, Palantir, United Airlines, Exeger, other corporations as sponsors on their websites. And I spoke with US Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat from New Jersey who sits on the America 250 Commission and has talked about how that competition for private donors has really challenged America 50. Because on the one hand, they're competing with the organization that's backed by the president himself, right? And so that's a big draw for a lot of these donors. They're also competing for federal funding. So in the One Big Beautiful Bill act, which was passed last summer, that included in it was $150 million for the 250th celebrations, much of which America 250 at the time expected to receive. And as it turned out, it's only gotten about half of what it says it was promised initially, and Freedom 50 has drawn down at least twice as much as they have from that amount.

[David Gura]

How do both groups explain that? Why has Freedom 250, the new Trump affiliated group, got so much more federal funding than America 250 publicly?

[Laura Bliss]

What American50 will say is that they are still waiting on funds that were promised to them and that they have an agreement in writing for these funds but have not received them yet. As far as Freedom 50 goes, they have this kind of special relationship through the National Park Foundation. And from my conversations with them, it does not seem to be a challenge for them to make work order requests and draw down the funding that they want to get.

[David Gura]

And there's also been some questions raised about, you know, the ethics of some of these corporate sponsorships, the oversight of some of these public monies. Can you say a little bit more about that?

[Laura Bliss]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so there was a congressional hearing a few months ago about freedom to 50 and, you know, questions being raised about where the money is coming from, how exactly it was created, its leadership. So just as one example, you know, January, AI, which is sort of a personal health app tracker app thing, signed on as a sponsor of Freedom50 shortly before becoming one of the first apps available in the new Medicare directory of services. And so, you know, watchdog groups, I think, have raised questions about is there a kind of quid pro quo happening here? January I says these two things are totally unrelated. And then, of course, perhaps most of all, there was a solicitation package the New York Times first reported on a couple months ago where Freedom 50 is basically saying, hey, donate several million dollars to our organization and we will give you direct access to the president.

[David Gura]

In comments for Laura's story, Freedom250 said the offer to donors was for a presidential reception, not one on1 meetings. Freedom250 added that the organization is, quote, sparking a unifying movement across all 50 that celebrates the American spirit and showcases our nation at its best. But Laura says that getting all 50 states on board was a challenge for one of Freedom 250's most visible events.

[Laura Bliss]

You know, the Great American State Fair pitched itself as we're going to have all 50 states and all U.S. territories, you know, on the Mall, represented in some way promoting the best of their entrepreneurship and agriculture and kind of cultural products in this kind of old time state fair tradition. And a lot of states were just not keen on participating. And some of that came down to funding. You know, they were really being asked to provide all of the money for staffing and programming these booths for two weeks on the National Mall. But also the same firm that planned the January 6th rally, the Stop the Steal rally on the National Mall, was also helping coordinate this event. And from public records that I obtained through foia, it appeared that a number of states were actually wary of being involved for that very reason. It made national headlines that shortly after the kind of slate of musical acts was announced, almost all of them or several of them pulled out or said they'd never committed to participating in the first place.

[David Gura]

And Laura, this isn't the first time that America's birthday planning has been fraught.

[Laura Bliss]

Right?

[David Gura]

You wrote about the run up to the bicentennial and the public outcry after the Nixon administration took over that planning process. Give us that mini history of really quickly and what was significant to you about that moment in the context of everything that you've been reporting on today.

[Laura Bliss]

Grand Americans, birthday parties affected by critiques about cronyism and kind of over corporatization and, you know, all these things that we're hearing about this year's celebration, this is nothing new. All of the same kind of accusations were in the air around the 1976 bicentennial and even in celebrations before that, like generations ago. But I think what is significant and instructive about the 1976 event is that, yes, you had President Nixon, who kind of inherited the celebration planning from his predecessor, lbj, and he replaced an existing commission with a number of his kind of political friends and allies. And. And there was a lot of outcry over that from the public. There was also a great deal of outcry over the kind of zeal that corporate America showed and, you know, showing off their kind of patriotic bona fides by, you know, branding everything from condoms to dry cleaning hangers with kind of red, white and blue flags and all of this.

[David Gura]

Yeah, they nicknamed it the Bicentennial, as in B, you why Centennial?

[Laura Bliss]

The Bicentennial. Right, exactly. What also may sound kind of incredible for our age is that, like, the federal government responded to that and the sort of Nixon infused commission was disbanded and replaced. And ultimately what the federal government did was kind of move in a direction that was more supportive of celebrations and events happening at the local level and at the state level. But I think when you look back at the 76 event, you know, historians will say that this was, to an extent, a success because people really were kind of engaging with questions about, you know, the nation's history and how it connects to the present. There was a real demand, I think, as part of the kind of, like, frustration around some of the plans, a frustration with a solely kind of like, tricorner hat, red, white and blue telling. People wanted to know the women's version. You know, people wanted to hear the perspective of Native Americans, Americans and black Americans. And so those sort of, like, threads of engaging with history have clearly continued and we're still seeing them today.

[David Gura]

Yeah, I mean, bringing it to today, it almost feels like, too on the nose that in a country so polarized, we have these two groups that are vying for influence, competing over who gets to mark this occasion, but also, in a way, over who gets to define America. At this key moment to you, what does this story mean or say about where America is at 250 years after

[Laura Bliss]

its founding, reporting on these two separate organizations and just sort of thinking about how they, they almost do represent these two visions of American politics says a lot about where we are, right. On the one hand, you've got this organization created by Congress. Its output has been maybe not incredibly thrilling to a lot of folks. Pretty, pretty friendly to its corporate sponsors, but not necessarily managing to attract the attention. On the other hand, this organization that is much more in the image of the president himself, Right. And you know, who is a figure that is adored by some people and who really repels many others. And so I think just that symbolism, right, of who wants to control the narrative over where America is at its 250th birthday says a lot about where we are as a country more broadly.

[David Gura]

This is the big take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. The show is hosted by me, David Gura and Wan Hawk. The show is made by Aaron Edwards, David Fox, Jeff Grocott, Paddy Hirsch, Rachel Lewis, Christie Emma Munger, Lauren Newcomb, Naomi Ng, Julia Press, Tracy Samuelson, Naomi Shaven, Alex Sugiura, Julia Weaver, Yang Yang and Taka Yasuzawa. Our executive producer is Nicole Beemsterboer. To get more from the Big Take and unlimited access to all of bloomberg.com, subscribe [e-mail] podcast offer. Thanks for listening. We'll be back on Monday.

[Chase Bank Narrator]

The Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit returns to Singapore on July 22. Our 5th annual Asia Pacific Summit will explore how business and finance leaders are shaping the next phase of globalization by strengthening resilience and driving a multi speed energy transition across Asia's diverse markets. Join us for solutions driven discussions and networking opportunities. Thank you to our summit advisor, Bangkok Bank. Learn more at bloomberglive.com SBS-singapore It's Latino USA.

[Maria Hinojosa]

I'm Maria Hinojosa. I sit down with New York City Mayor Zora Mandani to talk about sports, immigration, politics and the serious question of what makes a great New York city taco. But Mr. Mayor, as a Mexican, what have I done? What makes the best taco in New York City?

[Nathan Hager]

Oh my God.

[Maria Hinojosa]

Listen to Latino USA on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator]

I've been hearing for decades that the markets can solve climate change. Today we have more incentives for market solutions than ever. And emissions are rising. On this season of drilled carbon cowboys, the story of three market solutions colliding in one multinational boondoggle.

[Nathan Hager]

Gotta give proof of the guy's credit. They're Republicans. They don't give about any of this stuff.

[Drilled Carbon Cowboys Narrator]

Listen, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.