Small towns hoping to put on celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary have had to cancel or scale back their plans after the Trump administration cut their funding.NOTUS reports that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency slashed funding for humanities nonprofit councils in states and territories across the country, many of which planned to use those federal funds on history projects for the upcoming semiquincentennial. These official nonprofits were created by Congress to help make history and literature accessible to the American public.Humanities councils in Ohio, West Virginia, Alabama, and Washington state all had to axe or scale back their anniversary plans, their leaders told NOTUS, and it had a ripple effect down to local historical organizations.Musk’s DOGE initiative left these state organizations with just enough money to stay afloat last year. President Trump shifted millions from DOGE cuts toward his “triumphal arch” and “Garden of American Heroes,” preventing further funds from going toward local 250th anniversary projects.Congress tried to remedy the shortfall by restoring funding for the state humanities councils to their normal levels for the 2026 fiscal year. But the Trump administration has refused to disburse that money, giving the councils less than half of what was appropriated, and told them not to expect any more.That’s having a real impact in towns across America.“It means that we are not able to do things that are extra, things that are bigger projects. A lot of humanities organizations would have had some incredible projects that none of us have been able to complete,” said Jessica Cyders, the executive director of the Southeast Ohio History Center. Her organization could have been a candidate for a 250th anniversary grant from Ohio Humanities, which distributes federal grants to the state’s local historical societies and community groups.“There’s not really a lot of cultural infrastructure in West Virginia. Where most of the cultural work is done is in regional centers, community centers, small museums, county historical associations. So the people who really got hurt were those small organizations across the state,” Eric Waggoner, the head of the West Virginia Humanities Council, told NOTUS. They had planned to send their 250th anniversary funding to West Virginia University, local libraries, and small museums.“I’m sad to say we had to scrap it,” Waggoner said. “Since we’re the only organization that does this kind of grant-making in West Virginia, without us, there’s really not much.”“This is a pretty significant national event,” Cyders said. “Look, I’m probably not going to be alive for the 300th anniversary.”Trump also took funding from America 250, the federal bipartisan organization that was supposed to be planning the semiquincentennial celebrations, and redirected it toward his own pet Freedom 250 projects. The president seems to have ruined what could have been amazing celebrations for the entire country with his ego, and who knows what could have been going on at the National Mall instead of a tacky “Great American State Fair.”
Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author. Outsider Ambassador to Guatemala Can Combat Cartels President Donald Trump’s hemispheric counterterrorism agenda is on the […]
⚽ All the latest news and reaction from the World Cup⚽ Player guide | Bracketology | Knockout draw | Email usThe other co-hosts, the daddy hosts, are falling in love with soccer, and their national team.The game had an average of 24.429 million viewers on Fox, making it the most-watched English-language soccer broadcast in US history, the broadcaster said. The Fox telecast peaked at 31.883 million. Telemundo, which holds the Spanish language rights to World Cup broadcasts in the US, reported 9.1 million viewers over the total game window.Nobody needs an excuse to pump Sunday’s occasion up. With the final whistle nearing in England’s win over the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the local television commentator reeled off the names of England’s players one by one. In a manner redolent of the Norwegian broadcaster Bjørge Lillelien, whose “Can you hear me Maggie Thatcher?” oration in 1981 is etched into folklore, the Mexican equivalent welcomed Harry Kane and company to the bubbling cauldron that awaits. Continue reading...
In Ohio, the Trumbull County Historical Society had ambitious plans for local celebrations of the United States' 250th anniversary. But they encountered a major obstacle thanks to cuts that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) carried out earlier in President Donald Trump's second term. And on top of that, according to NOTUS reporter Anna Kramer, the president redirected Congress-approved funds from America 250 activities to "toward Trump's Freedom 250 pet projects.""While America 250 is now asking Congress for more money to fill a funding shortfall," Kramer explains in NOTUS, "Congress has already responded to last year's DOGE cuts by funding state humanities councils at their normal levels for the 2026 fiscal year. The Trump administration just hasn't dispersed those funds. As of June, the administration has only given the councils less than half of what Congress appropriated — and told them not to expect the rest, council leaders told NOTUS."Kramer adds, "Now, with the 250th anniversary just days away, the councils have been unable to fund anniversary projects. The Federation of State Humanities Councils, after a year of litigation against the Trump administration, just asked a federal judge in Oregon to declare that Trump is in violation of basic constitutional separation of powers rules by refusing to fully distribute what Congress intended."Trump, according to Kramer, "redirected tens of millions of dollars from the DOGE cuts toward" his "plans for a triumphal arch and a statuary garden of 'American heroes' in Washington D.C.""In the end," Kramer reports, "Trump's focus on the nation's landmark birthday made it harder for local groups across the country to plan their own celebratory projects."Meghan Reed, executive director of the Trumbull County Historical Society, is expressing her frustration. Reed told NOTUS, "There's certainly things that we could have done for America 250 if the funding was available. That just didn't work out how we thought it could have."Interviewed by NOTUS, Jessica Cyders — executive director of the Southeast Ohio History Center — said of the funding cuts, "It means that we are not able to do things that are extra, things that are bigger projects. A lot of humanities organizations would have had some incredible projects that none of us have been able to complete."According to Kramer, "local libraries and historical associations across the country" had to "abandon planning for ambitious history and civics initiatives" because the Trump administration "axed federal funding for state and local humanities projects last year."Rebecca Brown Asmo, executive director of Ohio Humanities, told NOTUS, "As the director of Ohio Humanities, I don't take any sort of position about those particular projects. But what I do think is important is that Americans have access to funding and have access to history and humanities experiences in their own communities. And we're missing that as a result of now a second year of this funding being held back. These are taxpayer dollars that are intended to go to local communities — and right now, they're being held back and funneled to projects in Washington D.C."
The House will enter an early recess Tuesday after several Republicans voted down a procedural rules vote, Speaker Mike Johnson’s office confirmed to the Daily Caller News […]
