America's birthday blues

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "America's Birthday Blues"

Podcast: Today, Explained (Vox)
Episode Date: June 9, 2026
Hosts: Sean Rameswaram, Noel King (Will King in this episode), Ben Smith
Notable Guests: Ben Smith (Semafor), (Unnamed) Vox Correspondent/Analyst, M.M.J. Rimsha Pavlovska (American University)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Today, Explained delves into America's 250th birthday celebrations—dubbed "America 250"—and explores how this significant milestone has become mired in political division, logistical hiccups, and cultural debates. The conversation juxtaposes current events with the bicentennial celebration of 1976, highlighting the ways in which these national commemorations tend to reflect the country’s fractures as much as its unity—both past and present.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The 250th Anniversary: Plans, Politics, and Partisanship

• Major Plans:
  • The Trump White House has orchestrated major events for America’s 250th, including a UFC fight on the White House lawn, a Great American State Fair on the National Mall, and the supposed "biggest fireworks show in history."
  • The planned concert series struggled to attract A-list talent, with most mainstream acts distancing themselves from the Trump-affiliated version; only Vanilla Ice remained from the lineup.
• Dueling Committees:
  • There are two rival semi-septcentennial committees planning the celebrations:
    • America 250: The congressional body, bipartisan, with $50 million in funding.
    • Freedom 250: White House-aligned, benefitting from a larger share of federal funds due to Republican control.
  • The White House's approach emphasizes spectacle and partisan appeal, reducing focus on more reflective or critical explorations of American history.
• Hyper-Partisanship:
  • The events, originally pitched as nonpartisan, quickly leaned into party lines, with Democrats and much of the public wary of the celebrations being co-opted for political gain.
  • Trump’s team dropped any programming that would have highlighted the "darker elements" of U.S. history once they secured control.

2. The Mood: Celebration vs. Anxiety

• Cultural Divide:
  • D.C. locals are anxious; protests are planned; the nation’s political split remains front and center.
  • Many Americans still favor big national anniversaries, but the fractious atmosphere has dampened enthusiasm, especially among those wary of overtly political spectacles.
• Hope for Fun Despite Divisions:
  • Some participants express hope that the spectacle can still bring enjoyment, particularly for Trump supporters.
    • Notably, the fun of Trump rallies is highlighted as a key draw for his base.

3. Lessons from America's Bicentennial in 1976

• Historical Echoes:
  • The U.S. bicentennial in 1976 was also greeted with division—post-Watergate disillusionment, the aftermath of Vietnam, and widespread social movements.
  • Two visions clashed: presidents Johnson and Nixon each tried to imprint their policies and political aims on the celebration.
• Pivot to Grassroots:
  • Intense activism from civil rights, women’s, and Native American groups pressured Nixon to abandon a top-down, patriotic “jamboree” model.
  • Nixon’s administration ultimately shifted the festivities to focus on local, grassroots commemorations, dispersing funds and resources to community groups nationwide.
• Takeaways for the Present:
  • Today’s historian guests note that while D.C.'s national spectacle may falter, plenty of authentic, local celebrations and projects are thriving beneath the radar.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Meaning Behind the Celebration:

  • “[Trump] is trying to celebrate America as he sees it, which is not totally separate from celebrating himself.”
    — Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst [02:42]

• On the Dueling Committees & Canceled Programming:

  • “There had been a plan to explore darker elements of America’s past, which, when Trump won, they just…absolutely…dropped because the White House doesn’t like doing that.”
    — Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst [05:39]

• On the Failed Concert Lineup:

  • “What they wound up with was a lineup of kind of lesser artists of the 90s and early 2000s…these guys are also sensitive to social media and apparently did not want any kind of association with the White House or Donald Trump. And so only Vanilla Ice is left.”
    — Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst [07:36]

• On the Cycle of Polarization:

  • “Trump says, I want to put on a big bipartisan spectacle, and it leans a little more partisan than…even in the first place, than Democrats and these artists are comfortable with, and they drop out. And Trump says, well, fine, I’m just going to turn this into a hyper partisan rally for myself.”
    — Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst [09:07]

• On How Past Celebrations Changed:

  • “The Nixon administration basically realizes that their vision for this kind of patriotic, celebratory, straightforward bicentennial is not flying. And so they totally change course. The mission totally changes.”
    — Ben Smith [23:33]

• On the Local Turn of the Bicentennial:

  • “The actual experience that most people had of the bicentennial were kind of really sort of local, community-based, grassroots, very seventies take on commemoration.”
    — Ben Smith [24:44]

• On Today’s Local Celebrations:

  • “There’s stuff, you just have to look for it.”
    — M.M.J. Rimsha Pavlovska [26:05]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [02:23] — Trump’s Approach to Celebrating the 250th
• [05:03] — Rival Committees and Their Conflicting Visions
• [06:39-08:42] — Failed State Fair Concert Lineup and Attempts for Big Show
• [09:07-11:17] — The Event’s Slide into Partisanship
• [16:02-17:13] — Mood of America Before the Bicentennial in 1976
• [19:19-23:33] — Nixon’s Attempts to Control the Bicentennial and Public Pushback
• [24:44-25:38] — The Shift to Local, Grassroots Commemorations
• [26:05-27:40] — Echoes of the Bicentennial’s Legacy in Today’s America

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Tone and Style Reflections

The episode moves between wry humor, historical insight, and candid acknowledgment of political realities, punctuated by moments of nostalgia and civic hope. The guests and hosts, while sometimes playful, repeatedly return to the sobering theme that national birthdays tend to mirror the country’s internal struggles as much as its ideals.

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Conclusion

“America’s Birthday Blues” explores how national celebrations like the 250th and the bicentennial moments can become battlegrounds for competing visions of American identity. Yet, for all the spectacle and partisanship, authentic expressions of patriotism and reflection persist—often outside the national spotlight, in local venues and neighborhood projects. The episode encourages listeners to look beyond headlines and partisan rancor to find the quieter, more inclusive forms of commemoration still alive in American life.

Transcript

[Will King]

There.

[Ben Smith]

I heard there are going to be a record number of fireworks. Oh, okay.

[Will King]

Everybody's excited about America 250 in Washington

[Ben Smith]

D.C. like a Guinness World record number of fireworks.

[Will King]

Producer Kelly Wessinger is excited. Lee Greenwood is excited.

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

Cause there ain't no doubt.

[Ben Smith]

I love this land. Are you gonna stick around for any

[Will King]

of the events or are you. Oh, we're only here till Thursday. Leaving on Thursday is excited. Admittedly, it's gotten a little messy. The concert's a flop. A judge might stop UFC fight. The fireworks should be good, which I'm excited about cuz I love fireworks. Good for you.

[Unnamed Historical or Political Commentator]

Like a lot.

[Will King]

Yeah. The country's divided. The protests are planned. The locals are anxious. The President fell asleep at a Knicks game. It's summer in America. We are 250 and some years back we were 200. And you know what? That one was a mess too. Today on Today Explained from Vox. Happy Birthday, dear America.

[Ben Smith]

I didn't realize they had closed it totally off. I thought the mall would still be open.

[Will King]

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[Ben Smith]

Hey, I'm doing it right now.

[Will King]

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[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

It's been 250 years.

[Ben Smith]

You're listening to Today Explained.

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

Ben Smith. I'm the editor in chief of semafor.

[Will King]

Okay, President Trump has all kinds of plans for the 250th anniversary of America. Before we get to what the plans are specifically, specifically, you have read into and talked to a lot of people. What do you think President Trump is trying to say with this celebration I

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

think President Trump is trying to celebrate America as he sees it, which is not totally separate from celebrating himself.

[Unnamed Historical or Political Commentator]

UFC is coming, as you know, in front of the White House with a building, literally a stadium. We will host the Great American State Fair on the National Mall. As far as birthday, as far as wishes, I want to just, you know, we have a phrase. I think it's goes down, I would think, in the history of our country, maybe the history of the world is the greatest slogan or phrase ever. Make America great again. That's all I want.

[Will King]

The history of these big anniversaries in the United States. I would imagine that in the past, we've made a big deal out of these. In talking to people who are involved with these celebrations and with the planning, have they made a case to you that the spectacle is warranted? Do you believe that what President Trump is up to is justified?

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

Well, I think most Americans think it's a good idea to celebrate big national anniversaries.

[Ben Smith]

So are you excited for the big birthday celebration?

[Will King]

Yes, I am.

[Ben Smith]

Yes.

[Will King]

And that's the reason why I brought my child here, my grandchild and my mom.

[Ben Smith]

I'm excited to celebrate our country. I mean, it's an amazing country for all its faults. So I'm just excited. I mean, 250 is. That's pretty awesome.

[Will King]

We're just happy to be in this country at this moment and that our family are enjoying this kind of event, which is 250 years of independence of this country.

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

You know, in fact, there's a congressional body called the Semi Sequintennial Commission, been around for years, preparing to, you know, to put up flags at football games and have a ball drop in Times Square and do kind of, you know, cheerfully generic celebrations of America's 250th anniversary. The Trump administration thought that it was kind of sleepy. And in particular, I think the original point was it just didn't have the kind of flair for spectacle that Donald Trump likes. Like, they wanted more glam and more fireworks and more, you know, cage matches on the White House lawn.

[Unnamed Historical or Political Commentator]

You know, we're building something in front of the White House. It's quaint, attractive to a lot of people. It's going to have the big UFC fight on June 14, and I'm looking at it, and maybe we'll never, ever take it down.

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

But when I was talking to the people at these two essentially rival semi sequentennial committees, one the congressionally mandated one called America 250, and one the White House one called Freedom 250. They are mostly staffed by people who were trying hard, at least for a while, to kind of get along and to not have the 250th birthday of America descend into the sort of partisan mayhem that every other thing in America descends into.

[Will King]

And then what happened? Are they competitive now? Are they still working together?

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

Well, they've always been competitive and kind of eyeing each other with a bit of, you know, mutual alarm or disdain or rivalry or something. Because the Republicans control Congress and because Trump basically controls the Republican Party, two thirds of the money Congress allocated went to the White House branch, not to the congressional branch, but the congressional bipartisan thing got $50 million to play with and raised a bunch of outside money. And so they. They. They were kind of grudgingly satisfied and, in fact, dropped. There had been a plan to explore darker elements of America's past, which, when Trump won, they just. They just. Absolutely. They just dropped because the White House doesn't like doing that.

[Will King]

Ah, okay. Okay. Let's talk about what some of the plans are. Much has been made of the concert series. Can you talk us through where that all began and where we are. You and I are talking late in the workday on Friday, where we are right now.

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

So there was an idea that came out of the kind of White House lead arm that I think is kind of a fun idea of a great American state fair to have, like, the kind of spirit of state fairs, which are, in fact, genuinely kind of delightful American institutions on the Mall in Washington. And as part of that, there would be big concerts with beloved artists, and, you know, artists in general meant most of them have learned lessons about staying away from politics and like to stay away from politics. And Donald Trump is very unpopular right now, which I think has made it particularly hard for him to get any, you know, mainstream popular artists to appear. And so what they wound up with was a lineup of kind of lesser artists of the 90s and the early 2000s. CNC, Music Factory, Everybody Dance Now. Young MC of the Great. I think the. I think it was a 1987 hit. Bust a move, Vanilla Ice. Yo, VIP, let's kick it. I mean, honestly, like, I'm a child of the 80s, I would have enjoyed this, but certainly wasn't. It was kind of an embarrassing lineup to begin with. And then when Young MC realized that he had been, in his view, kind of snookered into doing the kind of pro Trump version rather than the bipartisan version, he dropped out. And it's actually like, usually when you book an artist for something like this, you don't see this happen a lot because usually event organizers kind of run the traps on this, and before everybody signs the contract, they realize what they're signing on to. But there was some. But these guys are also sensitive to social media and apparently did not want any kind of association with the White House or Donald Trump. And so only Vanilla Ice is left. And so he is trying to bring back the spirit of the 1990s, which I do actually involve a kind of, like, some degree of bipartisan comedy. So, you know, I think we can all. We can all appreciate Vanilla Ice.

[Will King]

We can, in fact, all appreciate Vanilla. All right, stop. What else is. What else is planned? I know there's the UFC fight drawing a lot of attention. Any of the initial state fair elements preserved. Do we get, like, a big Ferris wheel?

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

Yeah, I think there will be carnival elements. And actually, I'm not sure if they're gonna be giant animal. Giant, you know, pigs and cows.

[Ben Smith]

But they.

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

That's always a fun state fair feature. But mostly there's just going to be Donald Trump. I mean, the kind of. This is like, it's the most sort of classic cycle of American politics where Trump says, I want to put on a big bipartisan spectacle, and it leans a little more partisan than even in the first place than Democrats and these artists are comfortable with, and they drop out. And Trump says, well, fine, I'm just going to turn this into a hyper partisan rally for myself. Yeah. And Democrats say, well, you were always going to do that anyway. And he says, no, you forced me. Me into it. And it's kind of like worse than doing nothing in the end, like, in terms of, you know, the kind of goals of whatever the goals. If the goals were bringing Americans together to celebrate the birthday, it kind of winds up kind of neg. Like a negative sum game in which everybody loses. I do think the White House detects an opportunity to accuse Democrats of not being patriotic enough and of, you know, selling out America's birthday celebration. And I think some Democrats, like, are mildly worried that the party will be somehow cast as unpatriotic. But I think as this thing continues to spiral, I think most Americans likely will just see it as the latest Washington hyper partisan antics.

[Will King]

This could have been fun. Let's be honest.

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

I mean, it could still be fun.

[Will King]

It could still be fun.

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

It could still be fun.

[Will King]

I live in. Are you going to go?

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

If I can, yeah. I live up in New York, so I have to make the trip down.

[Will King]

I'm in D.C. i'm going to go, but I But, But I'm already predicting I could be wrong, that the partisan nature of it will make it less fun than it could have been if we had all agreed to get along.

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

But maybe less fun for you, more fun for others. I mean, I mean, it's actually one of the features of, of, of Trump rallies that I think his opponents miss is that they're very fun for the people that go.

[Will King]

That's a very good point. Trump rallies are fun for people who really like Donald Trump. Yeah. Okay, so I was going to ask whether Donald Trump actually cares a ton about the people attending, and I think what I'm hearing you say is if they're his supporters, yeah, he does care that they have a good time.

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

Yeah, I think he wants to throw a big party for his supporters and not for the haters and losers.

[Will King]

What, last question. What do we know about the fireworks? I hear the biggest fireworks display in the history of the world. Is that accurate?

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

Trump loves spectacle, military parades. He's talking about building a massive triumphal arch. Although, honestly, I'm not sure which triumph it intends to commemorate. And, yeah, if he's gonna have a fireworks show, it'll be the biggest fireworks show in history. You know, hide your dogs, which I'm

[Ben Smith]

excited about because I love fireworks.

[Will King]

Ben Smith of Semaphore when we return. I remember the 200.

[Ben Smith]

So I guess just, you know, who

[Will King]

thought we'd make it to 250? So let's see if we can make it to 300, right? Will we make it to. To 300? No one can say. But America in 1976, the bicentennial. You won't believe what happened.

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[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

Mr. President, can you sing for us?

[Will King]

M.M.J. rimsha Pavlovska teaches history at American University. Wrote a book about the Bicentennial. Let us dip back into the mists of time. It is 1976. America is a different country than it is today. What is the mood leading up to the 200 year bicentennial celebration of USA?

[Ben Smith]

You know, it is not dissimilar as the mood now, and it's actually also not dissimilar as the mood in 1876. So we never have a uncomplicated national commemoration, it turns out. So in 1976. The president has just resigned under a cloud of scandal.

[Unnamed Historical or Political Commentator]

All of this adds up to a totally unpromptable, unprecedented situation. A grave and profound crisis in which the President has set himself against his own Attorney General and the Department of Justice. Nothing like this has ever happened before. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body.

[Ben Smith]

A president who many people really, really disliked, who was accused of having an imperial presidency.

[Unnamed Historical or Political Commentator]

I think the people are sick and tired of a war that never ends. President Nixon has not ended. I think they're tired of a leadership that tells us one thing in public while following a different course in private.

[Ben Smith]

We are coming out of a deeply unpopular war that had launched a lot of criticism and social movements.

[Unnamed Historical or Political Commentator]

Stop the war now.

[Ben Smith]

And also, Americans have just been protesting for, you know, 10, 20 years. So we live in a world where, you know, there have been kind of very active social movements, but where things have also changed a great deal in a short period of time. So bicentennial Planning started in 1966 when Lyndon Johnson was president. Lyndon Johnson formed the American Revolutionary Bicentennial Commission, which was the kind of national body that was charged with planning the Bicentennial. So what Johnson really wanted to do is he wanted to have a commemoration that reflected his priorities for a domestic agenda, which was Great Society.

[Unnamed Historical or Political Commentator]

The Great Society asked not how much, but how good, not only how to create wealth, but how to use it. Not only how fast we are going, but where we are headed.

[Ben Smith]

So he envisioned a commemoration where the federal government would pump tons of infrastructure and resources into American cities. And the way that he wanted to do this is he wanted to have an international exposition. And several cities competed. Philadelphia finally won. And the idea is that the Bicentennial, the world sphere, would be a kind of model city. It would be a showcase for essentially all of Johnson's domestic programs.

[Will King]

And then, and then Nixon came in

[Ben Smith]

in 1968, and he wanted to make it his own thing. So Nixon also originally wanted a international exposition, a world's fair, but unlike Johnson, he was less interested in using it as an opportunity to build infrastructure and more interested using it as an opportunity to celebrate America. And Richard Nixon, the first thing that I'll say is that he took the American Revolutionary Bicentennial Commission. And under Johnson, it had been a bipartisan, you know, non political commission. Under Nixon, he stocked it with people from his own cabinet and also his political allies. So he put people in who shared his vision for the commemoration. But the thing that happened is, well, Nixon, even when Nixon came in, he was a contentious and unpopular president with a lot of people. He, you know, he had supporters, but he also had a lot of detractors. And, you know, the Vietnam War was intensifying immediately. He tries to do this kind of very celebratory World's Fair. He gets a lot of pushback.

[Unnamed Vox Correspondent or Analyst]

What are they Planning to celebrate? 200 years of prejudice and hate? We have nothing to celebrate. New York Times, January 10, 1971.

[Ben Smith]

So there's an organization called the People's Bicentennial Commission, which is kind of started by sort of like soft new left people. They had a lot of support from like, you know, civic teachers and all. You know, they had all these. Yeah, they had all these protests. And their idea was basically like, you should make, you know, the bicentennials among moment for reflection. The bicentennial should not be a time for a grandiose display of chauvinism, but rather a time for the reaffirmation of the principles of democracy and equity for all, which serve as the foundation upon which this nation was built. Instead, the government group, whose members would have been labeled Tories during the American Revolution, plans to have a jamboree for its corporate mogul friends and others that control the institutions that try to manipulate our lives. New York Times, February 9, 1973. Why don't we try to plan a bicentennial that reflects the diversity of experience and the diversity of opinion across America?

[Will King]

Oh, this is interesting. Okay, so. So one thing that I recall from being an American civilization, major, is that the 1970s were a time of it was everybody's movement. It was like the civil rights movement, it was the women's rights movement, it was the Native American rights movement. So when these groups were calling on Nixon to complexify the plan or to like, not make it so simple, was it the same Argument of like, yes, America's a great country, but it also has some problems, and we need to acknowledge those.

[Ben Smith]

Yes, absolutely. Well, they were saying that a commemoration should be an opportunity to reflect and also to reflect on the past, the present, and the future of America. So, you know, for the American Indian movement, the thing that they said is, like, this is a colonial history. This is not a history of, you know, freedom of expanded rights. At least not for us. It is.

[Will King]

Who would want to participate in the 200th year of the ripoff of our country if the government would say, okay,

[Ben Smith]

we'll honor your old treaties on water

[Will King]

and fishing rights, and we'll give back land that was stolen, that would give the Indians something to celebrate. New York Times, December 8, 1975. Okay, so here you have President Nixon wanting to do the simple, patriotic, Nixon centric version, and you have all this pushback and what ends up happening.

[Ben Smith]

The thing that's really exceptional and the biggest difference between the past 1976 and what we're seeing now is that the Nixon administration listens.

[Will King]

Huh?

[Ben Smith]

You know, part of the reason they listen is probably because they have a lot on their plate. You know, so this is. All this is going on on more or less simultaneously with Watergate. You know, so at the beginning of the Nixon administration, they, you know, have a lot more time and energy to micromanage the bicentennial. By the end, they are, you know, putting out lots of other fires. But the Nixon administration basically realizes that their vision for this kind of patriotic, celebratory, straightforward bicentennial is not flying. And so they totally change course. The mission totally changes. So Nixon gives this speech in early 1974 when he's announcing this new direction. And what he says is, the bicentennial is not going to be invented in Washington, printed in triplicate by the Government Printing Office, mailed to you by the US Postal Service, and filed away in your public library. Instead, we shall seek to trigger a chain reaction of tens of thousands of individual celebrations, large and small, planned in and carried out by citizens in every part of America.

[Will King]

Wow. What does this tell us?

[Ben Smith]

So this is the bicentennial that we got, that you had all of this grassroots energy of people really advocating for and planning their own commemorative activity that was more reflective of their experience. And what they ended up doing is creating this new American Revolutionary Bicentennial Administration, whose sole purpose was to disperse funding through the states to really hyper local groups and even individuals who were planning bicentennial events and then to publicize those events. So the actual experience that most people had of the bicentennial were kind of really sort of local, community based, grassroots, very seven, you know, a very seventies take on commemoration.

[Will King]

This is very wholesome what you've just described, but it started out as a similar kind of politicized fury as what we're seeing now.

[Ben Smith]

It is absolutely.

[Will King]

You and I are speaking on June 8. We got less than a month. Do you think there is any chance that this heavily politicized celebration that President Trump has planned could morph into something perhaps a bit more hands across the water?

[Ben Smith]

I think that in some ways it already is. As a public historian, as a fairly community engaged person, I live in a world of kind of structures created for me by the bicentennial. You know, so one thing that happened when the bicentennial switched to kind of funding these small local projects is that a lot of small local projects and organizations were funded and that capacity is still there. You know, like your local museum probably got a new exhibit. Your library probably videotaped a bunch of people talking about what the commemoration means to them. So that ethos is still there. And when I look at the kind of stuff that's happening here in Washington D.C. for example, and, and you know, in other cities where people that I work with in the public history community are involved, I see a lot of, you know, really kind of great local projects. So here in D.C. the public library is doing an exhibit about Washingtonians contributions to America. There's a great, there's a great organization called Made by Us that do these kind of talkback walls for Gen Z people to write about what you know, to write down what they want to see for the next 250 years. So there's stuff, you just have to look for it.

[Will King]

M.M.J. rimsha Pavlovska of American University, her book is History Comes Alive. Kelly Wesinger and Hadi Mwagdi produced. Dolie Myers edited today's show. Patrick Boyd and David Tadashore are our engineers. And Gabriel Donatov checked the facts. Will King, it's Today Explained.