{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.welch.senate.gov/ranking-member-welch-calls-out-trump-for-turning-americas-250th-anniversary-into-a-self-promoting-moneymaking-spectacle/", "Ranking Member Welch\u00a0Calls Out\u00a0Trump for Turning America\u2019s 250th\u00a0Anniversary into\u00a0a Self-Promoting, Moneymaking Spectacle", "2026-06-24", "2026", "2026-06", "Democrat", "Senate", "VT", "Peter Welch", "W000800", "www.welch.senate.gov", "welch", "https://www.welch.senate.gov/category/press-release/page/", "scraper", "Welch: \u201cIt\u2019s a bitter irony that President Trump is honoring our nation\u2019s anniversary by embracing many of the practices that the Founders rejected.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, criticized President Trump for using America\u2019s 250th anniversary to engage in self-promotion, self-dealing, and selling access to himself. In his remarks, Ranking Member Welch emphasized how President Trump\u2019s actions mirror the concerns that shaped the United States\u2019 founding, particularly in the way the president has fostered a marketplace for influence where access goes to the highest bidder.\n\n\u201cIn 2016, Congress came together to establish a planning commission to celebrate America\u2019s 250th anniversary, and the Commission was bipartisan. The goal was to allow America and our ideals to be the focus, and not the focus being on any one person. To my dismay and regret, President Trump, in my view, has decided to create a completely separate entity\u2014called Freedom 250\u2014which was to develop its own plans for our anniversary. And this entity, with very little oversight, is estimated to cost $103 million in taxpayer funds. The official planning organization, authorized by a bipartisan vote of Congress, has received a fraction of that,\u201d said Senator Welch. \u201cIn my view, the president seems to be using this occasion to engage in self-promotion, self-dealing, and selling access to himself. That\u2019s not what a 250th anniversary\u2014that belongs to each of us\u2014should be about.\u201d\n\nSenator Welch continued: \u201cI can\u2019t help but notice how closely the President\u2019s actions mirror the concerns that shaped our founding. He has fostered a marketplace\u2014a marketplace for influence, where access goes to the highest bidder. And it\u2019s a bitter irony that President Trump is honoring our nation\u2019s anniversary by embracing many of the practices that the Founders rejected\u2026This celebration has to be about all of us, not about an individual person. It has to be about a shared sense of values and commitment to the future. And it has to be about a celebration, not private, personal gain. Those are the traditions we should be celebrating.\u201d\n\nRead Senator Welch\u2019s opening statement here and watch his full remarks below:\n\nTim Whitehouse, Executive Director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, testified on behalf of the Democratic minority. Witnesses for the Republican majority included Chris Griswold, Policy Director at American Compass, and Matthew Spalding, Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College.\n\nRead and watch an excerpt from Ranking Member Welch\u2019s exchange with Mr. Whitehouse:\n\nSen. Welch: There was a separate entity that was created, and Freedom 250 has received over $100 million in taxpayer dollars for the country\u2019s 250th anniversary. There isn\u2019t apparently much oversight. Can you just give your reaction to why this is a bad idea to have this separate entity?\n\nMr. Whitehouse: What is happening through Freedom 250 and all the other things happening in our government, we\u2019re moving to a government that\u2019s not transparent, it\u2019s not accountable, it\u2019s using taxpayer funds and resources for partisan purposes in the support of a particular political person or people, and it is pay-to-play politics. So, we need accountability, we need transparency, we need guardrails, and we need oversight when organizations like Freedom 250 are created.\n\nSen. Welch: On this question of a celebration of our, and I emphasize \u2018our\u2019 250th anniversary, how does it reflect on the capacity of everyone to share in that celebration if much of the celebration is focused on one individual? In this case, of course, President Trump? Can you describe your reaction to that and how it affects our ability as a country to really enjoy this in a shared way?\n\nMr. Whitehouse: Yes. I think, you know, as the other speakers\u2014Dr. Spalding, and Dr. Griswold, and Chairman Schmitt, and Senator Welch, and others\u2014as you have mentioned, this should be a communal celebration. This should be a celebration of shared civic values, and understanding our history, and looking forward to the future. And it\u2019s sad that it\u2019s sort of come out this way into a spectacle for a political person. And it\u2019s kind of what our Founding Fathers warned against.\n\n###", 1, "2026-06-25T06:30:03Z", "2026-06-25T06:31:21Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.welch.senate.gov/ranking-member-welch-calls-out-trump-for-turning-americas-250th-anniversary-into-a-self-promoting-moneymaking-spectacle/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.811475794762373, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}