From UFC Fights to State Fairs, Trump Unveils Plans for Nation’s 250th

The Washington Post

12:15 JST, July 5, 2025

DES MOINES – He was a teenager when the World’s Fair came to his native Queens in 1964. As an adult, he built a casino along the Atlantic City boardwalk called Trump’s World Fair. And as a candidate, he flew in a helicopter over the Iowa State Fair and took a bite from a pork chop on a stick.

Now, as president, Donald Trump is trying to create the carnival-like atmosphere of state and world’s fairs to showcase next year’s celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday.

Trump on Thursday returned to the Iowa State Fairgrounds, a place that had little to do with the founding of the nation but one that has played a role in his political biography, to launch a year-long festival that will culminate on July 4, 2026. The centerpiece of that birthday celebration will be “the Great American State Fair,” which Trump pitched to the crowd as “an enormous year long nationwide celebration of our heritage.”

“We will celebrate the 250th anniversary of America’s founding with a birthday party, the likes of which you have never seen before,” he said.

The effort, he said, is going to include a UFC fight on the grounds of the White House that will be overseen by Dana White, the chief executive of UFC and a longtime Trump supporter.

“We have a lot of land there,” Trump said. “We’re going to have a UFC fight – championship fight, full fight, like 20,000, 25,000 people. . . . The UFC fight is going to be a big deal.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed he was serious about the proposal.

Trump also said that he would host nationally televised athletic competitions showcasing high school students from each state in an event he’s calling the “Patriot Games.” That effort, he said, will be overseen by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (“He’s great,” Trump said. “And he’s a little different, right?”)

Much of his campaign rally-style, hourlong speech was spent touting the signature legislation that passed earlier in the day, a bill that he is planning to sign at the White House on Friday afternoon ahead of Independence Day fireworks. “There could be no better birthday present for America than the phenomenal victory we achieved just hours ago when Congress passed the one Big Beautiful Bill,” he said.

At one point while describing the bill he used a term many consider to be an antisemitic slur while referencing unscrupulous bankers.

“No death tax. No estate tax. No going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker – and in some cases, shylocks and bad people,” he said. Joe Biden in 2014 also used the term during a speech, later apologizing for it.

The semiquincentennial celebrations will give the showman president a powerful platform from which to project his vision of U.S. strength and history onto the world. But at a moment when the country is deeply divided along partisan lines, the plans are also likely to spur vigorous debate over how to tell the story of the nation’s history – and who should be the narrator.

From the Oval Office, Trump has sought to reframe how American history is told, renaming federal monuments and creating displays that advance his vision of the country. He has denounced a full telling of that history, one that includes the country’s flaws, as unpatriotic – stoking deep tensions about race and identity throughout his political career.

Trump in March signed an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which claimed to address the ways his political opponents “undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.” His administration has sought to minimize leaders and events that do not square with his ideology, stripping the name of gay rights leader Harvey Milk from a Navy ship and restoring the last names of Confederate generals to Army installations.

In his remarks on Thursday, he touted his policies against transgender Americans, about making English the official language of the United States, and called those who pushed to rename military bases that previously honored Confederates “radical left lunatics.”

“In everything we do, we’re once again defending the values, traditions and beliefs that made every generation before us so very proud to be American,” he said.

Trump originally conceived of the fair as an event on the Iowa State Fairgrounds that would bring “millions and millions of visitors from around the world to the heartland of America for this special, one-time festival.” But the event has evolved into a more sprawling celebration beyond the pavilions of Des Moines with a grand title: “A New Era of American Greatness.”

Now, the America 250 Commission will host a two-week fair on the National Mall next year around July 4, including food vendors and exhibits from all 50 states, according the White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private plans. The “Great American State Fair” will also travel around the country to state and county fairs over the next year.

Trump has said he wants the fair to “promote pride in American history,” and expanded on plans in his speech.

“The Great American State Fair will bring America 250 programing to fairgrounds across the country, culminating in a giant patriotic festival next summer on the National Mall, featuring exhibits from all 50 states,” he said.

He also said that he would celebrate the 250th anniversaries of the Navy and the Marines, just as he recently did for the Army. He again touted a rise in military recruitment numbers and the performance of troops who had recently executed a strike on Iran’s nuclear capabilities, promoting his decision to authorize strikes on Iran and defending its results.

The career entertainer, who often attends NASCAR races and UFC bouts, has long had a love of fairs and the rollicking and unpredictable settings they can provide.

In 1996, he opened the Trump World’s Fair Casino at an event that included strolling performers, jugglers, stilt walkers and high school marching bands – along with a fireworks and laser light display choreographed to music.

It featured artifacts from and murals of past U.S. World’s Fairs and included a 3,000-pound stainless steel sphere similar to the “Unisphere” from the World’s Fair held in 1964-1965 in Flushing Meadows. The biggest mural, however, rose over an escalator and was of Trump himself, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“We’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time,” Trump said when it opened. “Trump World’s Fair is an exciting destination, uniquely designed around the World’s Fair theme, that we know will be well-received.”

About three years later, it closed. It was losing some $10 million per year. Falling glass panes had forced closures of businesses below. Eventually, it was demolished.

Trump also installed a “Unisphere” look-alike at the Trump International Hotel and Tower on Columbus Circle in Manhattan. City officials objected when he adorned the structure with “Trump International” in big letters.

“Well, do you know originally they wanted to tear down the Eiffel Tower?” he said during a 2008 appearance with shock jock Howard Stern. “Do you know the Eiffel Tower was built just during the World Fair?”

One of Trump’s most significant experiences with a fair came when he was an early presidential candidate in 2015. He arrived at one known for its deep-fried foods, presidential candidates speaking from bales of hay and a life-size cow carved from 600 pounds of butter.

Trump made his appearance that year from a black helicopter emblazoned with bold letters spelling T-R-U-M-P, circling several times before landing. Hillary Clinton was strolling below him, posing for selfies.

Trump emerged wearing his signature red cap along with white dress shoes and French cuffs. He offered rides in his helicopter to randomly selected handfuls of Iowa children.

When Trump won a second term last year, Iowa’s leaders responded, ready to execute his vision of a fair.

“We know the Iowa State Fair is the best fair in the country!” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds wrote on X on Nov. 7, two days after the election. “In Iowa, we dream big, and we stand ready to host the Great American State Fair!”

Iowa state lawmakers in May approved legislation to allow state residents to set off fireworks around Independence Day and New Year’s Eve, an effort to align it with the festive atmosphere Trump is seeking for next year’s celebrations. During the debate, opponents questioned why the state was changing its laws to appease the president, while others pointed to firework displays dating to the nation’s founding.

“Mr. President, we welcome that idea in Iowa, and we’re ready, willing and able to host the party,” state Rep. Bill Gustoff said during debate on the measure. “We need to enable Iowans to be part of that celebration.”

At one point during his remarks, a bang occurred in the distance.

“Don’t worry, it’s only fireworks. I hope,” said Trump, who survived an assassination attempt a year ago this month. “Famous last words. My famous last words. ‘Trump said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s only fireworks.’ You always have to think positive.”