June 24, 2026
President Donald Trump on Wednesday launched celebrations for the nation’s 250th birthday with a rally on the National Mall, declaring, “America’s 250th year is set for an economic boom, the likes of which no nation has ever seen before.”
“There has never been anything like the United States of America,” Trump said. “Together we are making it bigger and better and stronger and far more exceptional than ever before.”
Trump stated that the nation’s founding in 1776 changed the course of history, praising the Declaration of Independence for proclaiming the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and arguing those principles helped build what he called the world’s greatest, strongest, and most exceptional nation.
The rally served as the kickoff event for the Great American State Fair on the National Mall. The 16-day event, beginning Thursday, features pavilions representing all 56 states and U.S. territories, along with concerts and other attractions celebrating the nation’s semiquincentennial.
A concert scheduled as part of the fair was canceled after several entertainers, including Young MC, Martina McBride, and the Commodores, pulled out shortly after the lineup was announced May 27. Some reportedly said they never agreed to perform or were not told the event would be “politicized.”
Trump instead announced he would serve as the featured speaker at the kickoff event.
The program also included military flyovers, speeches from Cabinet members, and performances by Lee Greenwood and Christopher Macchio, two of the president’s favorite singers, along with multiple military bands.
“Tonight, as we stand on the edge of our 250th year of independence,” Trump said. “I am thrilled to declare that America is back. As you know very well, a short time ago, we were a dead country. We were dead. Now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world.”
“We’re respected by everybody,” he added. “Nobody’s laughing at us anymore. Two years ago, they were laughing. Now, we’re the most respected anywhere.”
Trump also honored Americans who fought for independence and built the nation over the past 250 years.
He said farmers, soldiers, shopkeepers, and tradesmen united to defend their families and freedoms from tyranny before generations of Americans expanded the country westward, settled the frontier, built railroads and highways, constructed skyscrapers, invented the airplane, won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism, and led humanity into space.
“Under our leadership, America will also be a nation that dares to dream and to build again,” Trump said. “We want to build again and dream again.”
The American dream is alive again, he added, noting that this was something “nobody thought they’d be saying when you went through that last four years of incompetence.”
Trump invoked many of the nation’s founders and historical figures, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Paul Jones, John Hancock, and Abraham Lincoln.
Trump also cited Revolutionary War battlefields, including Lexington and Concord, Saratoga, Trenton, and Yorktown, saying generations of Americans had answered Patrick Henry’s call to seek “liberty or … death.”
Trump said each major anniversary of American independence has been marked by lasting national projects. He noted that the Washington Monument was completed for the nation’s 100th anniversary and that work began on the Statue of Liberty, while Colonial Williamsburg commemorated the 150th anniversary and the National Air and Space Museum opened as part of the bicentennial celebration.
Looking ahead, Trump highlighted several projects tied to the nation’s 250th birthday, including a new White House ballroom, a planned triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery, the National Garden of American Heroes, and the upcoming Spirit of ’76 exhibition at Freedom Plaza.
“In West Potomac Park,” Trump said, “we are creating the National Garden of American Heroes, featuring 250 or more statues of the greatest Americans who have ever lived. It’s going to be beautiful.”
Trump also announced that next week at Freedom Plaza, “we will unveil the Spirit of ’76 exhibition honoring the heroes and martyrs of the American Revolution.”
“Now we are expanding the glory of American freedom really into a horizon that’s never been seen before,” Trump added.
“We’ve never reached so high as we’re reaching right now. This is our heritage. This is our history, and this is the destiny of America to be the greatest, most incredible country ever to grace the earth.”
“Today, we are one people, one nation marching into one magnificent future under our great American flag that we love and respect so much.”
