On May 31, Donald Trump announced a new plank of his platform for the 2024 presidential race: a year-long celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The festivities will center on a “Great American State Fair” at the Iowa State Fairgrounds composed of pavilions representing each of the 50 states.
Concurrently with the fair are to be the Patriot Games, a series of competitions between high-school athletes from across the nation. Additionally, Trump announced plans to revive the National Garden of American Heroes, a statuary park planned during the last year of his administration but cancelled by President Biden.
One New York Times assessment of the proposal was predictably cynical. “Under different circumstances,” Times editorial board member Michelle Cottle wrote, the Patriot Games “could be a lovely way” to recognize the American founding. But we can’t do it, she implies, because the Right is in both a “dither over traditional manhood and strength” and a “freak-out over trans athletes.” And Trump’s proposed revival of his garden might sound “harmless, if ridiculously overbroad” — except when one considers that the selection of historical figures to memorialize might prove too contentious.
Cottle’s wariness is misguided. We should treat this anniversary as an opportunity to relieve some of our national malaise. The tensions made obvious by the toppling of statues and mass protests that first inspired the National Garden of American Heroes have not dissipated. A successful response to these voices will both insist on the greatness of American history and point towards a vibrant future.
Trump’s proposal works towards this end. It celebrates the fullness of the American experience: its past, in honoring our national heroes; the present, as each state shares its first fruits at the Iowa fairgrounds; and the future, which will be built by the young men and women of the Patriot Games.
For all his faults, Trump got this one right. Whoever the president may be in 2026, he should take up the “Salute to America 250.” If Americans are to heed the former president’s call to “believe in [them]selves, believe in [their] future, and believe, once more, in America,” they need a clear reminder of what American greatness looks like.