The United States is entering the core phase of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a historic milestone that will culminate over the July 4 weekend. The festivities, however, are unfolding on two parallel tracks that reflect the country’s persistent polarization: on one side, America250, the bipartisan organization created by Congress to manage official, neutral events with $150 million in federal funding; on the other, Freedom 250, the powerful political-private apparatus built by Donald Trump to shape the anniversary in his image.

The celebrations

Between nationalist rhetoric and accusations that Democrats are veering toward a supposed “communist” direction, Trump’s imprint on the celebrations has already divided the country: controversies have ranged from the disputed “Blue America” repainting of the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial to mass boycotts by artists such as the Commodores and Martina McBride, who canceled their shows to avoid being used for political purposes. The president publicly dismissed them on social media and turned the June 24 opening night on the National Mall into a massive rally staged beneath B-2 stealth bombers.

After the setbacks at the inauguration and with the Great American State Fair (the exhibition of all 50 states) open on the Mall through July 10, the presidential schedule moves today to Medora, North Dakota, for the ribbon-cutting of a new presidential library dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt. Then, on July 3, Trump will travel to South Dakota for the Freedom 250 Rushmore Fireworks Celebration. The White House has secured approval to restore fireworks over the carved faces at Mount Rushmore — a display banned for five years due to high wildfire risk in the Black Hills. Welcomed by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Trump will deliver a programmatic speech before fireworks launch at 10:00 p.m. (5:00 a.m. on July 4 in Italy). The event will be tightly controlled: access is limited to just 4,800 U.S. residents selected by a national lottery from more than 103,000 applicants, and a state budget of $700,000 includes hi-tech drone light shows as a contingency if weather forces a change.

The main event will take place on Saturday, July 4, in Washington, D.C., within a National Mall secured and prepared to host more than one million visitors. The day will include ceremonies for veterans and the “Spirit of ’76” parade at Freedom Plaza, but the focal point will be at 9:00 p.m. (3:00 a.m. in Italy), when Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech celebrating “250 years of the American spirit.” For the finale, set for 10:30 p.m., the president has pledged an official bid for the Guinness World Record for the largest fireworks display in history. Freedom 250 has commissioned the firm Pyrotecnico to produce a colossal 40-minute “wall of fire” over the Potomac, with more than 860,000 fireworks — a volume described as a hundred times that of a typical national celebration. The stated aim is to surpass the record set by the Philippine megachurch Iglesia Ni Cristo, which in 2016 fired 810,904 fireworks to mark the New Year.

While the capital will be dominated by the Trump-organized show, the institutional counterpart America250 will concentrate its efforts elsewhere in the country to provide a neutral, bipartisan alternative. At the National Historical Park in Philadelphia a time capsule will be buried and sealed until 2276 to offer future generations an authentic portrait of the nation at 250 years. On the opposite coast, in Los Angeles, the bipartisan organization will gather up to 50,000 people at the Memorial Coliseum for the concert “America 250: America’s Block Party.” Meanwhile, in New York’s Times Square there will be a historic and unprecedented “ball drop” modeled on New Year’s Eve that will be repeated eight times to mark midnight across the different U.S. time zones and territories.

The White House-orchestrated celebrations will not end with the holiday weekend but will extend into late summer, serving as a large political amplifier ahead of the midterm elections. Concurrent with the Washington events, New York Harbor will host the International Naval Review, an extensive maritime parade in the tradition of Operation Sail 1976, featuring historic sailing ships and modern warships sent by 32 allied nations. From August 9 to 11 attention will shift to the Patriotic Games, a national sporting competition intended to honor the country’s top high school athletes. The curtain on Trump’s version of the 250th anniversary will finally fall on August 22 and 23 with the “Freedom 250 Grand Prix,” a new and spectacular automobile race on a temporary city circuit laid out among the capital’s historic monuments and avenues — an event the president has strongly insisted on.