Taxpayers Are Supposed To Shell Out $150 Million for Next Year's July 4th Celebrations
Yet another wasteful expense in the "big, beautiful bill."
Consumer spending on 2025 Fourth of July celebrations is expected to reach $8.9 billion, according to the National Retail Federation—a slight decrease from previous years, but still well above pre-pandemic level spending. Next year, taxpayers can expect to pay even more for Independence Day festivities, albeit indirectly.
On Friday, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law. Tucked away in the sprawling 870-page tax and spending bill is a section that allocates $150 million for "events, celebrations, and activities surrounding the observance and commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States." The funding, which will be appropriated to the Interior Department, shall remain available through FY 2028.
Appropriately, Trump signed the bill—which is expected to add nearly $4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade—at a Fourth of July celebration on the White House South Lawn, complete with fireworks and a B-2 jet flyover.
Commemorating America's 250th birthday has been a quiet priority of the second Trump administration. In January, the president signed an executive order that established the White House Task Force on Celebrating America's 250th Birthday. The task force, which is housed in the defense department, will coordinate with federal agencies "to plan, organize, and execute an extraordinary celebration of the 250th Anniversary of American Independence and shall coordinate agencies' communications with the United States Semiquincentennial Commission." (The White House has since launched a website that includes a countdown to next year's festivities.)
This order also reinstated two executive orders signed during the first Trump administration, which had been rescinded by President Joe Biden, to establish a National Garden of American Heroes. In April, the National Endowment for the Arts began accepting applications from sculptors for the garden, reports Reason's Joe Lancaster. However, the garden faces several roadblocks to its planned opening of July 4, 2026, including a lack of quality sculptures and a designated location.
It is unclear exactly how the $150 million included in the bill will be spent, but the cost is exorbitant, even by Trump's standards. In 2019, the president hosted the "Salute to America" event to celebrate that year's July Fourth, which included a grandiose display of America's military power and several flyovers of multiple stealth aircraft that ended up costing American taxpayers more than $13 million, "well above the $6 million to $7 million that had been spent in the previous three years," The Washington Post reported at the time.
The following year, Trump held two Independence Day celebrations—one in Washington, D.C., and one at Mount Rushmore on July 3—which drew a price tag of $14,573,608, per Newsweek.
More recently, Trump hosted a military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Army (which fell on his 79th birthday) that included M1 Abrams main battle tanks, over 6,000 marching soldiers, and (yes) more aircraft flyovers. With an estimated cost of $25 million to $45 million, the parade cost taxpayers "$277,778–$500,000 per minute," Reason's Billy Binnion reported.
The fact that America is on track to see its 250th anniversary is certainly worth celebrating. However, a state-sponsored celebration that saddles taxpayers with even more debt is the type of event that the founders would diametrically oppose. Lawmakers still have time to rescind the wasteful spending of "big, beautiful bill," but given Trump's hold on the Republican party, and Democrats' penchant for government spending themselves, it is unlikely.
For now, taxpayers can look forward to once again financing the federal government's celebration of Independence Day, only this time at a much higher price tag.
