On a sunny summer's day in the Republican stronghold state of Iowa, US President Donald Trump strode down a red carpet runway in front of a giant national flag.
A crowd of supporters packed bleachers at the Iowa State Fairgrounds and chanted "U-S-A".
It was July 4, 2025, Independence Day, and Mr Trump was hosting a "Salute to America Celebration".
His landmark tax cuts dubbed the "Big Beautiful Bill" had just passed the US House of Representatives and five months into his second term the president was ready to spruik his political achievements.
"A hundred and 65 days into the Trump administration America is on a winning streak like, frankly, no-one has ever seen before in the history of the presidency," Mr Trump said during a half-hour wrap of his 2025 highlights.
Mr Trump then revealed he had celebratory plans for 2026.
"The golden age of America is upon us. This incredible national resurgence is happening just in time for one of the biggest events in the history of our country," he said.
"Exactly one year from tomorrow we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of America's founding with a birthday party the likes of which you have never seen before."
What is America250?
America250 is a bipartisan, non-profit US Congressional Commission designed to coordinate celebrations this year for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The group states it aims "to inspire our fellow Americans to reflect on our past, strengthen our love of country, and renew our commitment to the ideals of democracy through programs that educate, engage, and unite us as a nation".
"We are charged to execute the largest and most inspirational celebration this country has ever seen," America250 chair and former US treasurer Rosie Rios told the ABC.
"We represent all three branches of government and we are by law mandated to bipartisan. I also say non-partisan, all-partisan, in fact no political ideology has made its way through any of our programming.
"It's values-based programming and I think that the best way to think about us is 'no politics, just purpose'."
A "playbook" of planned events was finalised in March, 2024 — more than a year before Mr Trump's rally speech, Ms Rios said.
In an earlier exchange with the ABC an America250 spokesperson said the organisation was comprised of three distinct entities.
The "Semiquincentennial Commission" is a 24-member, Congress-appointed body including Republican and Democrat politicians and 16 private citizens. It is tasked with planning programs to honour the country's history.
Former presidents George W Bush, Barack Obama and their wives, former first ladies Laura Bush and Michelle Obama, are honorary co-chairs. There is also a seven-member board.
The non-profit's third arm is the "White House Task Force 250" which organises promotional events overseen by the president.
For months Mr Trump has released multiple "America250 Presidential Message" statements to mark historical anniversaries.
Those statements included remarks about the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which declared "the United States will never waver in defense of our homeland", and the 1863 ratification of the US Constitution's 13th Amendment which abolished slavery.
While the organisation describes the celebrations as commemorations of national history, University of Queensland public policy expert Dr Adam Hannah said it would be difficult to separate it from politics.
"Contests over what it means, what the Declaration of Independence means, how the constitution should be interpreted, what the Revolutionary War was about — these debates have raged since the founding," he told the ABC.
"Any sort of way of expressing what it means, the historical significance of an anniversary like 250, is always inherently political.
"It makes sense for a president. This is an opportunity to use what they call the bully pulpit to get in front of audiences to shape the political narrative, to shape this meaning in way that aligns with the administration."
Trump plans a UFC fight and 'garden of heroes'
During his speech in Iowa, Mr Trump revealed that as part of the year of celebrations he planned to host "special events".
One would be an Ultimate Fighting Championship bout to be held on the grounds of the White House.
He declared 25,000 people would attend.
Mr Trump has frequently attended UFC events.
Two months later, UFC president Dana White confirmed planning had started.
"We're building this arch — almost like the St Louis [Gateway] Arch — and the lighting rig will go above the Octagon," Mr White said in September on a podcast hosted by YouTube influencers Logan Paul and Mike Majlak.
"When we shoot this fight this whole backdrop will be the White House, and when the cameras move over … it's all the Washington Monument.
"The fighters are gonna walk out of the Oval Office."
The White House also announced in July that Mr Trump would reinstate plans for a "National Garden of American Heroes" that would include 250 statues of notable individuals.
The White House confirmed in its Big Beautiful Bill that $US40 million ($59.9 million) had been set aside until 2028 for the garden's construction.
Mr Trump first authorised the initiative in his first presidential term in 2021. It was later revoked by Joe Biden.
"The National Garden will feature a roll call of heroes who deserve honor, recognition, and lasting tribute because of the battles they won, the ideas they championed, the diseases they cured, the lives they saved, the heights they achieved, and the hope they passed down to all of us," Mr Trump said in his 2021 executive order.
Among the people touted to be immortalised in the garden were boxing champion Muhammad Ali, coloniser and explorer Christopher Columbus, civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr and rock'n'roll legend Elvis Presley.
[DATAWRAPPER NAMES TABLE]In April, the US National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) agency began allowing artists to apply to design the statues, with grants of up to $US600,000 ($903,825). It said the project was expected to begin from October 1 last year.
The grants announcement also revealed that artists would need to create "life-size" sculptures that are "made of marble, granite, bronze, copper, or brass".
The NEH, White House, US Department of the Interior and its National Park Service — which are conjointly responsible for creating the garden — did not respond to questions from the ABC about whether specific artists had been chosen, a location, or a reveal date for the garden had been set, or if the identities of the 250 "American Heroes" had been decided.
Ms Rios also said she was unaware that any final decision had yet been made.
Other presidential plans for the year include a "giant patriotic festival" featuring exhibits from all 50 states to be held on Washington DC's National Mall, and a televised "Patriot Games" sporting competition to pit high school athletes against each other.
In December, the US Mint revealed new designs for commemorative coins which feature historical figures and artefacts such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and the Liberty Bell.
Designs that represented women's suffrage and the civil rights movements, which were proposed and developed during the Biden administration, were scrapped under the Trump administration.
Ms Rios said the final decision on coin design lies with US Treasurer Scott Bessent under currency legislation she introduced in Congress in 2016.
Some political analysts believe Mr Trump is using the celebration of the country's history for his own political gain.
"The 250th [anniversary] does not belong to the federal government," Dr Michael Green, the CEO of the University of Sydney's United States Studies Centre, told the ABC.
"Donald Trump is likely to try to hijack it and it's likely not to work for him. It's going to be a bit of a sour note if he does.
"The UFC event will be a footnote in history and will be characteristic of how Donald Trump is viewed.
"And people, I think, will be hungry for the dignity that the presidency had before he came."
Dr Emma Shortis, the director of The Australia Institute's International and Security Affairs program, said she believed Mr Trump was using his Make America Great Again ideology to "dominate the celebration".
"The celebrations will, I think, be dominated by that Trumpian symbolism [and] efforts to capture the media cycle to make good television," she told the ABC.
"His attendance at UFC fights has become a marker of his cultural power and the hyper-white masculinity of the Trump administration."
Ms Rios said she did not believe Mr Trump's chosen events were at odds with the various other commemorative, historical and community-based tentpole celebrations scheduled for 2026.
She said the presidential events were "options" for Americans who wanted to celebrate the milestone.
"This president deserves to plan the celebration that he thinks this country should have," she said.
"There are going to be some folks who absolutely want to participate in all the historical, retrospective activities. There are other folks who want to focus on the fireworks and the [2026 FIFA] World Cup and all the kind of levity that comes with that.
"Absolutely that should be their option. There has to be something for everyone, there has to be choice and there has to be the ability for people to participate in every way they want to participate.
"We are absolutely in sync and rowing in the same direction on how that's going to be implemented."
The midterm factor
Four months after Mr Trump plans to host the National Mall fair, Americans across the country will vote in the 2026 midterm elections.
The result from the November 3 ballot will determine whether the president and his administration maintain control of the US House of Representatives and Senate.
[DW HOUSE OF REPS]Mr Trump's disapproval rating among voters steadily rose since his inauguration in January last year.
The rating sat between 53 and 54 per cent by mid-December, according to average results from hundreds of opinion polls compiled separately by The New York Times and RealClear Polling.
More than one in four voters said they felt "angry" toward the Trump administration by September last year — representing the worst sentiment towards a government since the Obama administration in 2013, according to the Pew Research Center.
[DW SENATE]Dr Hannah said while he believed Mr Trump's hand-picked events might be seen as controversial among some voters, their ballots were more likely to be impacted by other significant political issues.
"There's a good chance that this is likely to turn them off, that they won't pay attention beyond pointing at it and thinking 'how ridiculous, what a debasement of American history, or our understanding of the American story and American patriotism'," he said.
"Voters seem to be much more interested in economic policy, in major debates around social policy, the issue of immigration will obviously be a really big one, the various raids and Trump's mobilisation of force in American cities.
"Those are the sorts of issues that I think much more directly affect people's lives, and the evidence suggests that's the basis on which they tend to vote."
Dr Green said he expected the midterm results would show Mr Trump's American exceptionalism was not winning him votes.
"These kinds of moves by President Trump are not working with a majority of Americans … and Americans love patriotism," he said.
"It's not going to be politically successful for Donald Trump — it's not going to save him in the midterms."
So, will the US unite for America250?
Dr Green anticipated Americans would be united in "celebrating the country".
"[They] are going to stand up and sing the national anthem at football or baseball or hockey games and you won't really know who is on which side of politics," he said.
"The mainstream historical view that most journalists and historians will write about 20 or 30 years later, that my kids will tell their kids, is going to be [that] at 250 years the US was still the most powerful country in the world.
"The US has transformed the world and transformed itself with a lot of struggle and a lot of setbacks. It's still a very imperfect union."
Ms Rios agreed. She said she believed the country would "put politics aside" to celebrate and to reflect on the history and future of the US.
"I don't think about red and blue. I think about red, white and blue. I only carry one flag — that's the American flag," she said.
"That's how I'd like to think that's how a lot of Americans want to have the celebration roll out.
"Discussion needs to happen in terms of what the next 250 years are going to look like, so if we are at the start of that discussion and that journey I think that would be a great sign of success."
