By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON, June 30 (Reuters) – Inside President Donald Trump’s six “Freedom Trucks” that will drive across the country to celebrate America’s 250th birthday, an AI-generated George Washington greets visitors and proclaims: “Thy rights are a gift from God,” beneath a ceiling emblazoned with the words, “In God We Trust.”
On the eve of the holiday observing the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence, the tricked-out “Freedom 250” mobile museum trucks have fanned out, from Washington State on the West Coast to North Carolina on the East Coast. The trucks offer what backers call a year-long patriotic salute to the American Revolution and the nation it birthed.
Freedom 250 spokesperson Rachel Reisner said the organization “is sparking a unifying movement across all 50 states that celebrates the American spirit and showcases our nation at its best.”
But the trucks have sparked some backlash. In Massachusetts in June, local media reported that some citizens in one town objected to a planned Freedom Truck visit, leading to its cancellation. Critics say the trucks and other celebrations give an overly religious version of American history and gloss over problems such as slavery and racial injustice.
Democrats have complained that taxpayer funds and private donations for the trucks and a range of other Freedom 250 events lack accountability. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent federal agency, provided a $14 million grant for the six trucks that was coupled with $10 million from Freedom 250.
A group of U.S. Senate Democrats on March 3 wrote Interior Secretary Doug Burgum asking why government funds were directed to “a private entity that is unaccountable to the American people” and whether those funds are being commingled with private funds “potentially raised from foreign sources.”
They have not yet received a response, according to Senate aides.
Meanwhile, House of Representatives Democrats have been investigating whether money appropriated by Congress for “America 250” events has been diverted to the White House’s Freedom 250 celebration.
“The soaring achievement of our secular enlightenment-based founding is obscured by a gauzy Christian nationalist fiction,” Democratic Representative Jared Huffman of California said at a House hearing, speaking about Freedom 250-sponsored events, including the truck museum presentation.
During congressional hearings Republicans disputed Democratic charactarizations.
Republican Bruce Westerman of Arkansas reminded Democrats of the Declaration of Independence preamble that says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
In May, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility sued the U.S. Interior Department over the agency’s refusal to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for documents on Freedom 250 funding and activities. Among the group’s inquiries are reports that federal workers were being used to promote a private entity, funds are being used to push a partisan agenda and access to Trump was being sold.
“All these decisions on what events, what money to spend, the money comes in, where it goes out, it’s all in a black box,” PEER senior counsel Aaron Lloyd said in a telephone interview. “I want the government documents that explain what money went where.”
The White House did not respond directly to questions about the role of religion in the truck exhibits or other 250th anniversary celebrations. In an emailed statement, spokesman Davis Ingle said “2026 will feature a renewal of patriotism and national pride.”
A ‘JUBILEE OF PRAYER’
On May 17, a Freedom Truck, its side painted to depict the iconic painting, “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” was parked just blocks from the U.S. Capitol, anchoring a daylong “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving.”
A White House website touts a Freedom 250 “America Prays” page. Visitors to the site are urged to dedicate an hour per week praying for the U.S. and its people. It lists “pray.com” as a participating organization. The religious social networking site says it collects information about users that it may share with outside firms.
The Freedom Trucks content was created by Hillsdale College, a private conservative Christian liberal arts college, and PragerU, which is not a university but a creator of “edu-tainment” content espousing Judeo-Christian values.
PragerU has created videos including one that explores how elections can be stolen, showcasing mail-in ballots as a culprit, echoing widely debunked allegations that Trump has made repeatedly since he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Another video, “Pride Month Why do we do this?” questioned the June celebrations by LGBTQ communities.
PragerU did not respond to requests for comment on financial arrangements it secured from Freedom 250.
A RELIGION-INFUSED BIRTHDAY PARTY?
Some historians have questioned the relevance to the 250th anniversary celebration of the religious-related presentations embraced by the Trump White House.
Kate Carte, a Southern Methodist University history professor specializing in early American history, noted that during the American Revolution, Protestant British loyalists and opposing “patriots” in the American colonies both believed they were acting in keeping with their religious values.
But, Carte added in a telephone interview last week, “The conflict between Britain and the colonies really had nothing to do with religion.”
Furthermore, she said, America’s Founding Fathers “were very aware that religion could be really divisive” and thus decided that no central establishment of a religion was better than trying to create one.
According to a 2023-2024 study by the Pew Research Center, 62% of U.S. adults identify as Christians. Of that group, evangelical Protestants comprise 23%, more than any other single faction.
About 29% of American adults are religiously unaffiliated. This includes atheists and agnostics and 19% saying they are “nothing in particular.”
Religion is not the only hot-button issue on display during America’s semiquincentennial.
The Trump administration has been entangled in court cases over its efforts to erase interpretive information from national parks including exhibit material on slavery and climate change.
People who remembered the U.S. bicentennial in 1976 recalled it as a less contentious celebration.
Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, said 50 years ago, the U.S. was not deeply engaged in public conversations about the contributions of its indigenous and African American people or women.
“The 1980s changed that,” Spears said, adding that the country moved away from presenting its history as mainly “guys on horseback with swords.”
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by David Gregorio)
Comments