The Movement: Right wrestles with Trump-ification of 250th Independence Day celebrations

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As the summer of the United States’s 250th birthday bash gets into full swing, the right has an opportunity to embrace a patriotic vibe shift — but it is wrestling with itself about falling into knee-jerk politicization and Trump-ification.

The World Cup has provided a refreshing and unexpected dose of American admiration and appreciation as Independence Day approaches. Social media is awash in feel-good content from foreign tourists who are charmed by cultural quirks like Waffle House, friendliness and ample air conditioning.

Patriotic aesthetics, while still largely conservative-coded, seem to be more widely embraced than in recent years. America 250 merchandise abounds, and left-wing “No Kings” protesters have embraced flying the American flag at their rallies.

If there is a vibe shift, though, it’s getting Trumped in the nation’s capital.

Sunday’s “Freedom 250” UFC fight at the White House was an impressive and bizarre spectacle of American exceptionalism and corporatism, with a super-sized Navy Blue Angels and Air Force Thunderbirds flyover. The Marine Corps band played each fighter’s walk-out music live, corralled by dividers noting sponsorship by SuperFile. Tech and media titans like Mark Zuckerberg and David Ellison joined the president and various other politicians in the audience.

But despite being a purportedly nonpartisan event, it devolved when UFC fighter Josh Hokit proclaimed in his post-victory interview that former first lady Michelle Obama is a man.

Hours later, President Trump announced on Truth Social that he will have “the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY” on the National Mall on July 4, placing himself at the center of what was already set to be a grand air, music and fireworks show for the nation’s 250th Independence Day.

Such statements and moves are hampering the right’s attempts to capitalize on a wider patriotic mood.

Take it from Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, who is emblematic of the kind of low-propensity younger male voter who supported the president in 2024 but has turned away from Trump over the last year and a half. Portnoy on Monday said that Trump “has to denounce” Hokit’s Obama quip.

“When you have that on the White House lawn on an event you put down, I don’t care what you think about the Obamas or anything — that has to be an immediate denounce,” Portnoy said. “I think you’re crying over spilled milk if you are upset about the actual event, but that comment, if you’re going to do it, own it, and be like, ‘That was wrong, and should never happen.’”

“This p—-s me off. You wanna throw out this nonsense at a rally? Fine. Not at an official Freedom 250 event. Disgraceful,” Fox News columnist David Marcus said on social media.

The White House didn’t respond to The Hill’s request for comment about the remark.

Turning the Independence Day rally into a “Trump rally” was not widely welcomed on the right, either — with Marcus commenting, “This sucks.”

Trump’s move to make the National Mall celebrations more about him, and therefore more inherently political, comes a few weeks after several musical acts pulled out of the “Great American State Fair” taking place on the National Mall. That event is organized by Freedom 250, an organization created by Trump after the administration sought to have a heavier hand in planning festivities — clashing with America250, a bipartisan group created by Congress in 2016.

The birthday party battles come as Republicans could greatly benefit from a boost in the national mood ahead of the midterms, which have been defined by pessimism about the state of the economy and how Trump has dealt with it while in office.

An NBC News poll conducted May 29 to June 7 found that Americans are largely pessimistic about the American institutions and think the American Dream is further out of reach.

Pride in America, meanwhile, has plummeted: A little more than half — 56 percent — of Americans describe themselves as extremely or very proud to be an American. Measured against survey data from the same question measured by Gallup since 2001, that marks the lowest level of American pride in a quarter-century.

If Trump and the right truly want to reverse that trend, it might take more than a few grand flyovers and rounds of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.”

Welcome to The Movement, a weekly newsletter looking at the influences and debates on the right in Washington. I’m Emily Brooks, House leadership reporter at The Hill.

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MILLION-DOOR MILESTONE

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Action announced Monday that its field teams in all six states where GOP Senate seats are at stake have surpassed knocking on one million doors in the 2026 election cycle.

The milestone comes as the organization has pushed national politicians on the right to focus on an economic message and offer voters a “credible plan to erase” economic pressure.

“When one of our activists stands on a porch and listens to a family talk about what it costs to fill their tank or feed their kids, and then walks them through a candidate’s real plan to bring those costs down, that voter knows they’ve been heard. Those conversations can’t wait until September — they need to be happening now,” Nathan Nascimento, executive director of AFP Action, said in a statement.

Earlier this year, the Koch Industries group put out a public memo to “interested parties” calling on decisionmakers in Washington to focus on cost of living, and articulating a “credible, specific, and consistent plan to lower costs.”

In an interview with Politico’s Weekly Score newsletter, AFP’s CEO Emily Seidel again stressed the importance of Republican candidates focusing on the cost of living issue.

“Anytime any candidates talk about anything but the cost of living, it is a distraction,” Seidel said.

She warned that 20 percent of high-propensity base voters could be at risk in this cycle.

SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM CHATTER RUNS THROUGH GOP

When Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on a local Louisiana radio show last week that Republicans have a “plan” to adjust and “fix” the looming Social Security insolvency if they keep control of Congress in 2027, fellow Republicans in the upper chamber reacted with hesitation, my colleague Alexander Bolton reports.

Johnson had noted that more than 74 percent of federal spending “is on autopilot” — calling it mandatory spending, which includes “entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and then things like Social Security.”

A number of fiscal hawks agreed with Johnson, but the comments made others wary, thinking it is not politically prudent to focus on popular programs in a critical election year.

“That sounds like wealthy people who want to have all of their tax breaks and loopholes and their carried interest deductions and so forth, but they want working people who paid into all of those programs for years to take less,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said.

“Addressed? Reformed? That’s usually code for ‘cut.’ I’m not in favor of that,” he said.

ON MY CALENDAR

Wednesday, June 24: The District of Columbia Republican Party hosts a reception with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), 5:30 p.m. Details here.

Tuesday, June 30: The Federalist Society’s New York City Lawyer Chapter hosts a conversation with Mollie Hemingway on her book on Justice Alito. Details here.

THREE MORE THINGS

The Hudson Institute announced that its executive vice president Joel Scanlon will be the think tank’s next president and CEO, as current president John P. Walters prepares to step down at the end of the year after 17 years at Hudson and five years leading it. “He combines strategic ambition, exceptional leadership, and a deep commitment to our mission,” Hudson’s Board of Trustees President Sarah Stern said of Scanlon in a statement.

Vice President Vance expressed regret for his “childless cat ladies” comment in his new book, NBC News reports, calling it “one of the dumbest things” he’s “ever said.” Vance wrote that it was “a boneheaded comment, intentionally (and successfully) provocative rather than illuminating.”

Now, that would be a political consultant cage match for the ages: Posting a picture of the UFC Octagon on the White House lawn, Trump 2024 co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita said that “the only thing missing from this cage is me and @jeffroe,” in reference to a rival GOP mega-consultant.

WHAT I’M READING

Wall Street Journal’s Kara Vought: Erika Kirk Lays Out a Vision for the Conservative Christian Woman

The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel: The DOGE Bros Want Another Shot

Wall Street Journal’s Jessica Toonkel: The Former GOP Operative Running a News Site for the ‘Politically Homeless’

The American Conservative’s Andrew Day: Vance’s Next Move?

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Michelle Obama

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