‘FROM VANITY TO INSANITY’

Note to readers: We’ll be off tomorrow for the July 4 weekend. I’m planning to grill veggie dogs and watch some fireworks, as the founding fathers intended. See you Monday!

How did Donald Trump mess up America’s birthday so badly? A bombshell report digs into just how this party went so wrong.

• America’s 250th birthday is a big deal. That’s why Congress started planning for by creating a nonpartisan commission, named America250, an entire decade ago. But you wouldn’t know that based on the series of public embarrassments — and terrible vibes — surrounding the Trumpian celebrations.

• How did it come to this? The Trump administration effectively hijacked America250 and replaced it with their own secretive commission, according to a new report from House Democrats released today. The report describes the commission, known as Freedom 250, as “a shadow organization capable of infiltrating the celebrations.”

• Just look at the mess in the nation’s capital. The so-called Great American State Fair isn’t living up to its name. The sparse crowds, the busted ferris wheel, the gallons of melted ice cream, the stage that’s falling apart. The right-wing provocateur who jumped on stage to express the view that the problem with the Salem witch trials was that they should have been better organized. The Reflecting Pool turned emerald-green, and authorities arresting people for simply touching the water. (Former Olympian David Hearn was charged today with vandalizing the pool, an accusation he has flatly denied.) The massive firework show on July 4 is expected to cause hazardous air pollution. The cherry on top: Washington is going to be hotter than 99 percent of places on Earth this weekend, further complicating celebrations.

• “Donald Trump stole our 250th birthday and made it all about him and his vanity projects and his political machine,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, told What A Day.

• America250 and Freedom 250 are weirdly similar names… and that’s the point.

• “It was confusion by design,” Huffman said, alleging that the name allowed Trump’s team to deceive donors about how their money would be used. The report — titled “From Vanity To Insanity: How The White House Cheated The American People Out Of Their 250th Birthday” — is based on interviews with anonymous whistleblowers and media reports.

The report even alleges that donors may have been tricked into sending money to Freedom 250, even though they meant to support the congressionally chartered foundation.

• Some people who intended to donate to America250 were given Freedom 250’s banking information instead, according to the report.

• “A gift solicited in the name of the nation’s nonpartisan birthday commission could thus be redirected without the donor’s knowledge, by an entity created to serve the President’s priorities,” the report reads.

• Democrats on the committee intend to get a full, detailed accounting, Huffman said, but they’re already talking about serious numbers. “Freedom 250 itself has conducted aggressive outreach to America250’s corporate sponsors, making calls to the same donors to ask for millions of dollars to support its own programming,” the report states.

• The White House referred What A Day to Freedom 250 for comment. The commission didn’t immediately respond. But in an earlier statement to the Washington Post, the organization said donors were not misled by its fundraising activities, and criticized Democrats over the report’s timing.

• “This so-called ‘report’ is nothing more than a partisan smear from politicians who would rather manufacture division than celebrate America’s 250th birthday alongside the rest of the country,” Freedom 250 spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez told the Post. Alvarez also criticized America250, saying the group had “nothing to show” for 10 years of planning.

Well, I have a message for Donald Trump: When Milli Vanilli turns you down, you know you have a problem.

WHAT ELSE? 👀

The labor market added fewer jobs than expected in June, according to government data. Wages also didn’t keep up with inflation for the third month in a row.

Iran’s military warned oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz could face a “forceful response” if they don’t use routes approved by the country. That comes after U.S. Central Command released a statement saying that leaders in the Middle East had discussed “their shared commitment to the free flow of commerce through the Strait of Hormuz” at a recent meeting. Trump keeps saying the U.S. won this war… but then how come Iran keeps calling the shots?!

Russian drones and missiles killed at least 21 people and injured dozens more in attacks on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, which started overnight and continued this morning. This has been the deadliest spring for Ukrainian civilians since Russia invaded in February 2022.

Conservative firebrand Tucker Carlson said that he’s starting a new political party. “What really matters is war and finance. Where does the money come from? Where does it go? And who gets killed?” Carlson told the Columbia Journalism Review. “And on those questions, the parties are in lockstep solidarity with each other. That’s not a democracy. That’s a one-party state posing as a democracy.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) endorsed Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (who used to host a Crooked Media podcast) in his contentious three-way primary. The race is being closely watched as a harbinger of Democrats’ future: Will Democratic voters continue electing democratic socialists, like El-Sayed? Or will they choose the moderate, establishment-backed candidates?

LIGHT AT THE END… ☀️

Americans are dying at the lowest rate in history, according to CDC data. The good news is a bit surprising, since deaths from flu and pneumonia rose last year. But the CDC cites a drop in overdose deaths, which is great news.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are tying the knot at Madison Square Garden on Friday, a law enforcement official briefed on the plans told the Associated Press. Details about the monumental event have largely been kept under wraps, with NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani telling reporters: “We are fully prepared.… There isn’t anything to share beyond that.” I just want to see what they do with the giant castle.

Speaking of love in the city that never sleeps, Mamdani spoke with Complex about the first time he saw his now-wife on a dating app: “I think I was in love from the moment I saw her photo. I screenshotted her Hinge profile before she even matched back,” he laughed, recalling how his hands nervously shook as he crafted his first message to her.

Gen Zers in New York City are holding an anti-technology festival, complete with plays, an orchestra, zines, a July 4 cookout, and a series of talks including how to date offline and how to protest data centers. “We believe that the event is the medium to enact social change, where people can meet up in physical space. When we are trying to organize online, we have Mark Zuckerberg’s eyeballs and Silicon Valley’s fingers in the sacred human interactions of our lives,” said Gowanus, a literal “media puppet” dressed in blue cloth with soda cap eyes, in an interview with Wired at the festival. “We are striving to create an event that defies consumption.”

A Spanish man picked up a painting on the side of the street because he liked its gold frame — and later discovered that it was an original painting by a famous painter, Joaquín Sorolla, worth some $170,000. The only problem: It belonged to a family, who left it outside. The owners “were in the habit of taking it on holiday with them,” the Guardian writes. “They had intended to pack the picture into the boot of their car as they headed to the beach but had accidentally left it leaning against a wall and driven off.” Perhaps one difference between Americans and Europeans is that you could easily predict which would be more likely to take a pricey painting with them to the beach.

A Mexican woman reunited with her dog, who had been lost for a month, after a relative spotted him being hoisted into the air by a Mexican soccer fan on social media during a World Cup match. “I wanted to cry, to laugh, to hug her and even to scold her at the same time. While we were worried looking for her, she was out partying!” the dog’s owner said.

Meet Elliott and Jasper!

“My dear friend Celia volunteers at a farm and has formed a very special relationship with Elliott, a neurodivergent baby goat. Jasper is equally sweet and lovable.”

— Kathlene