The $2.5 million was supposed to be spent on National Park Service upkeep, not Trump’s very special episode of Independence Day.
As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised not to take a salary if he was elected. Early on in his presidency, the White House made a show of touting Trump’s quarterly donations of his salary to different federal agencies. The very first one was for $78,333, given to the National Park Service to help maintain a historic battlefield site.
But on Tuesday evening, The Washington Post reported that the National Park Service (NPS) transferred $2.5 million away from a fund devoted to improving and maintaining parks around the country in order to pay for Trump’s Fourth of July extravaganza on the National Mall. Normally a nonpartisan, unifying birthday celebration for America, Trump will be the first president to host his own Fourth of July celebration there, even setting aside a VIP section with a good view of the Lincoln Memorial for his special guests.
The cost associated with the event will be far more than $2.5 million, but just to cover this initial transfer, Trump would have send a similar-sized check to the NPS almost 32 more times to make up for it.
View the complete July 3 article by Ryan Koronowski on the ThinkProgress website here.
The authoritarian nationalist leader typically rewrites the story of the nation in his own image, in a very particular way. Our own homegrown authoritarian nationalist has proved particularly devoted to this fusion of national mythmaking and self-hagiography, often delivered in his own unique language of crass, gaudy spectacle.