It takes a certain amount of audacity to throw yourself a 250th birthday celebration while quietly taking apart the rights that made the celebration meaningful in the first place. Donald Trump has mastered this approach.

On July 4, 2026, we’re expected to come together. There will be fireworks over the Statue of Liberty, tall ships in New York Harbor, new quarters from the U.S. Mint with Liberty Bells, and a benefit show at the LA Coliseum. Trump has put his own spin on the celebration, calling it “Freedom 250” and presenting himself as a successor to Jefferson and Adams. This is the same man who tried to overturn a fair election. Now, he’s being praised by a Supreme Court he helped shape, while that Court spends its time undoing the protections Americans rely on to guard against leaders like him.

Look at the receipts.

Trump appointed three of the six conservatives who now support his every move, and that decision is having immediate effects. In April, his Court issued the Louisiana v. Callais decision, which nearly eliminated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. This 1965 law, for which Black people—including teenagers—were beaten and killed, was weakened by a 6-3 ruling that told Southern states giving Black voters a fair chance in congressional districts was now considered an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander.” Then in June, the Court allowed Alabama to use a congressional map for the 2026 elections that a lower court had already identified as intentionally discriminating against Black voters. What used to be subtle signals are now loud and clear.

Republican-led states began redrawing district maps almost immediately after the Callais decision. According to Fair Fight Action and Black Voters Matter Fund, Republicans could gain over 190 seats now held by Democrats in 10 Southern state legislatures, with most of those seats currently represented by Black lawmakers in majority-minority districts. Trump’s Court didn’t just limit a civil rights law; it created a redistricting tool for him, just in time for the midterm elections.

On June 25, in Mullin v. Doe, the Court ruled 6-3 that the president has “unreviewable authority” to end the Temporary Protected Status program. This means no court can intervene. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians, who were vetted and approved by the U.S. government, can now be deported to active war zones at the president’s discretion. That same week, the Court approved a policy that physically blocks asylum seekers from entering the U.S., made it easier to deport green card holders, and prevented a Rastafarian man from suing prison officials who cut off his dreadlocks in violation of federal law. It seems religious freedom only applies to some.

On June 29, the Court overturned a 91-year-old precedent so Trump could fire Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter without cause. One of the last structural checks on a president drunk on his own power, just gone. The independent agencies that exist to keep a sitting president from running the government like a personal piggy bank? He can now fire their leaders whenever he wants. We used to have a word for a country run by a single unaccountable man. It’s the exact thing the colonies declared independence from on July 4, 1776.

While the Court has been advancing Trump’s agenda, the economy he often misrepresents is causing serious harm to Black Americans.

In May 2026, the Black unemployment rate was 6.6%, almost twice the white unemployment rate of 3.8%. It reached 8.3% in November 2025, the highest since the pandemic, after hitting a record low under Biden. The National Urban League has already said that Black America is in a recession, and the data supports this. The Trump administration has cut more than 327,000 federal jobs, weakened the civil service that has helped many Black Americans join the middle class, eliminated federal DEI programs on the first day, and signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which cemented policies that are destabilizing Black households. Black women, especially those with college degrees working in public-sector jobs, are suffering the most. Trump calls this success.

It has now been four years since the Dobbs decision, which Trump promised and his Court delivered. In that time, many red states have lost access to OB-GYN care. Women have suffered in hospital parking lots because doctors are afraid to treat them due to the Court’s rulings. Miscarriages have been investigated as crimes. Despite calling itself originalist, the Court has failed to recognize women’s rights in the Constitution.

And birthright citizenship is still coming. Check today's news. The 14th Amendment, settled law since 1898, is on the table because his Court has decided the only constitutional principles worth defending are the ones that protected the people who already had all the power in 1776.

So this is where we are: America at 250 years. The Liberty Bell appears on every commemorative quarter, while the real bell seems to have cracked again, symbolizing broken promises from the Declaration. There will be tall ships, parades, a benefit concert in Times Square, and speeches about building “a more perfect union.” Bush and Obama, with Laura and Michelle, will sit as honorary co-chairs, while the current president treats the celebration as a campaign event with more impressive fireworks. The Declaration of Independence will be read in many town squares, including the part about governments getting their power from the consent of the governed.

Trump is not paying attention. He never has. Meanwhile, the Court he influenced is on summer break.

There is a Black tradition of celebrating this country regardless of its challenges. Black Americans built it, sacrificed for it, and fought for every right they have through writing, music, protest, and legal action. No matter what one twice-impeached, four-times-indicted real estate developer and the six justices supporting him do, they cannot erase the truth about who secured those rights, even if they are currently taking the rights themselves.

So enjoy the barbecue, watch the fireworks, and wear red, white, and blue if you feel inspired.

But don’t let anyone, especially Trump, mistake a birthday celebration for a victory. After 250 years, there is still important work to do, and this year, Donald Trump has made that work much harder.