Image: A person carries a miniature statue of President Donald Trump at The Great American State Fair along the National Mall on July 4, 2026, in Washington, D.C.Alexi J. Rosenfeld / Getty Images

Tyler Walicek of Truthout reports: “The U.S.’s vaunted semiquincentennial anniversary celebrations on July 4 were not, ultimately, the moment of civic unification that had been envisioned a decade ago, when planning for the event began. It was inevitable that the ceremonies would be tainted by the tense and polarized state of the nation. President Donald Trump, however, in his signature way, managed to exacerbate and accelerate the existing grotesqueries and absurdities of the occasion.

From the ramshackle, propaganda-infused Great American State Fair to a Washington, D.C. Fourth of July rally that was filled with jingoist demagoguery from Trump — who boasted of annihilating Iran and took shots at recent “communist” wins in Democratic primaries — the ceremonies were a fitting reflection of a divided and tottering empire in its 250th year…”

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