Letters from an American - Americans’ Civic Identity

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

May 17, 2026Trump administration organizes a taxpayer funded evangelical worship event in Washington DC, Administration seeks to use the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence to promote its ideology, Trump loyalists have taken over planning for the nation’s birthday celebration from Congress, Trump’s Freedom 250 project showcases Trump more than the nation’s history, In a false reading of history, speakers at the event assured the crowd that the US was founded as a Christian nation, The founders were clear that government should be separate from religion, MAGA politics requires obedience rather than self-government, But questioning and debating is essential for advancing the nation’s core political values, A belief in the principles of democracy, and a commitment to America’s civic identity unifies the nation and is the story of America. Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

May 17, 26. Thousands of people gathered today on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to engage in an eight-hour taxpayer-funded evangelical worship event, to rededicate the nation to Christianity. The Rededicate 250, a national jubilee of prayer, praise, and Thanksgiving event is part of the Trump administration's attempt to use the 250th Annaboardian. of the Declaration of Independence, to rewrite America's history,

turning it from one that champions the enlightenment values of natural rights, equality, and self-government, to one that requires Americans to accept that some people are better than others and to defer to their leaders. This was not Congress's intent when it established a bipartisan

America 250 Commission in 2016 to plan and orchestrate the 250 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But shortly after he took office for the second time in January 2025, Trump and his loyalists began to take over the planning for the nation's birthday celebration. As Dan Friedman and Amanda Moore of Mother Jones explained, right-wing operatives, including the company that staged the January 6th, 2021 rally near the White House before the attack on the U.S. Capitol, jumped into the management of America 250.

But Trump chafed under the idea of congressional oversight and a pretense of bipartisanship, so in December 2025, he created his own new organization, Freedom 250. Congress appropriated $150 million for the Department of the Interior to distribute to organizations for celebrations of the 250th. Of that money, America 250 has been allocated $50 million, and Freedom 250 has been allocated $100 million, although as of February, America 250 had received only $25 million. Freedom 250 has also solicited donations in exchange for access to Trump. According to Carissa Waddock of USA Today, sponsors include ExxonMobil, MasterCard, Dole, and Deloitte, Palantir, and IndyCar. Donors can also request anonymity.

As Kenneth P. Vogel, Lisa Friedman, and David Ferenhold of the New York Times explained in February, Freedom 250 has planned events that showcase Trump rather than important events and themes in the nation's history. Those include an IndyCar race around the National Mall, the construction of a triumphal arch near the Lincoln Memorial, an ultimate fighting championship event on the White House lawn on Trump's 80th birthday in June. And today's Rededicate 250 event. President Trump was golfing today, but he, along with Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Defense Secretary Pete Heggzeth, spoke on video to the crowd, assuring them that the United States of America was founded,

as a Christian nation. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, spoke in person. All but one of the 19 clergy and faith leaders who spoke were Christian, and most were right-wing evangelical Protestants. The video of Trump the organizers played

was the same one he recorded three weeks ago for America Reads the Bible. The passage was Second Chronicles 7-11 through 22, One Christian nationalists believe marks the U.S. as a Christian nation. When the Lord says to Solomon, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. But the United States of America was not founded as a Christian nation.

The founders were quite clear about that. In the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli, ratified unanimously by the Senate just a decade after the Constitution went into effect, U.S. leaders said, the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion and has no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility of Muslims. They went on to say that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the U.S. and Tripoli. Thomas Jefferson, the key author of the Declaration of Independence,

and James Madison of Virginia, the key thinker behind the Constitution, both wrote explicitly about the importance of keeping the government separate. from religion. Jefferson wrote that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship. The legitimate powers of government reach actions only, he wrote, and not religious opinions. In 1785, Madison explained that what was at stake in keeping the state and religion separate was not just religion, but also representative government itself. The establishment of one religion over others attacked a fundamental human right, an unalienable

right of conscience. If lawmakers could destroy the right of freedom of conscience, they could destroy all other unalienable rights, including those enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, and codified in the Constitution. Those in charge of government could throw representative government out the window and make themselves tyrants. Rather than basing the United States on religion, the nation's founders and framers,

as well as Americans of later generations, sought to instill in Americans' reverence for the nation's core political values, especially the right of self-government and the checks and balances that made that self-government possible. In speeches and memorials, novels, and poems, they emphasized the sacrifices Americans had made to protect the values embodied in the Declaration of Independence

and the Constitution. That civic religion unified the nation, but it did more than that. It also instructed Americans on the rights and duties of citizens of citizens who live in a nation that rests on we the people. They must think for themselves, question elected officials, and take an active role in their government. Replacing Americans' civic identity with Christian nationalism destroys that vitally important understanding of the role of citizens in a democracy. Instead, it demands that Americans do as they are

told, turning them into subjects. The theme of obeying the leader runs deep in Trump's politics and in Maga more generally. The Bible passage Trump read on video today emphasizes obedience, warning the chosen people that if they forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, then they will be destroyed. Cowboys for Trump founder Coy Griffin read the same passage at the January 6, 2021 insurrection, suggesting that overturning democracy for Trump was obeying the Lord. Laura Jadid, the firewalled media, reported that vendors at today's event handed out buttons that said, wives submit, husbands love, children obey. But blindly obeying authority has never been the story of America. From its origins in resistance to the British government,

the story of America has been the opposite of obeying. It has been about questioning, debating, criticizing leaders, and working to build a more perfect union as the framers charged us to do. The story of America is how those who believed in the principles of democracy, those ideals articulated by the founders, however imperfectly they live them, have struggled to make the belief that we are all created equal and have a right to have a say in our government come true. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts, Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.

Thank you.