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Trump officials misled people who wanted to donate to a bipartisan initiative to mark America’s 250th anniversary, redirecting them to donate to the administration’s own group instead, according to a congressional investigation released Thursday.A report released by House Democrats, based on newly obtained documents and whistleblower accounts, said that the White House repeatedly steered donors toward Trump’s Freedom 250 setup instead of the America250 effort set up by Congress 10 years ago.Some donors and sponsors who sought to send funds to America250 were told by the Trump administration that they didn’t have a “green light,” and were pressured to redirect their money to Freedom 250. Freedom 250 also reached out to America250 donors with donation requests, confusing some corporate executives who didn’t know the difference between the two groups, the Democrats’ report states.“I’m a lawyer, and I know better than to pronounce that a crime has been committed,” Representative Jared Huffman, the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, told The Washington Post. “But I do know the elements of fraud, and there is evidence of all those elements here.”The report goes on to detail how Freedom 250 officials explicitly steered money away from America250 toward projects favored by Trump, who undermined a bipartisan plan to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary to the benefit of himself and his allies.For example, America250 had received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to fund Freedom Trucks, mobile museums that would travel around the country with lessons on American history. That grant was transferred to Freedom 250, which produced its own version of the trucks with history lessons that present a distorted image of U.S. history.Democrats accuse Trump allies of steering away $75 million worth of taxpayer funds originally allocated by Congress to America250. The leftover money is expected to be kept by the White House. And Freedom 250’s staff is made up of many former employees of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative, which harvested user data.Officials of the bipartisan America250 say now that they have shifted their efforts toward events outside of Washington, D.C., while Freedom 250 handles events in the nation’s capital. But the split has confused legislators and corporate leaders and caused tensions between the two efforts, according to the Post.Thanks to Trump, America250’s grants, educational initiatives, and volunteer programs have been overshadowed by Freedom 250 efforts. Officials expect to make up for their lost funds through more private donations, but the president has effectively ruined what could have been a unifying, nonpolitical celebration of the U.S. at a time when the American people could really use it.

Manny Rutinel’s victory this week in Colorado’s primaries has set up a once-unthinkable scenario: This November, in one of the most crucial swing races in the country, a former vegan activist will face off against a cattle rancher in a district dominated by meat-processing giant JBS.Rutinel, a 31-year-old member of the Colorado House of Representatives, beat his more moderate opponent, Shannon Bird, earlier this week in yet another victory for insurgent progressives. But as he now pivots to the general election, he’ll be facing Republican Gabe Evans and an onslaught of attacks over his past statements on animal rights and meat consumption.The 8th district, created in 2021 by the state’s independent redistricting commission, is Colorado’s only swing district, and swingy it is—voters in the district elected a Democrat in 2022 by fewer than 1,600 votes and Evans in 2024 by fewer than 2,500 votes.“It’s reasonable to think that [the district] will just switch back and forth with whatever party is having a good year that year,” said Seth Masket, professor of political science at the University of Denver. “Given what we’ve seen in other elections this year, I think there’s a very good chance it swings to the Democrats.”The district, which includes the northern suburbs of Denver and stretches north into more rural communities, is a major agricultural region. JBS, the world’s largest meat-processing company, is one of the district’s biggest employers. Evans himself owns a small cattle herd and is a self-described beef producer.As a student at Yale Law School, Rutinel gave an interview to a campus publication calling animal agriculture “a horrific, exploitive industry.” That same year, he told a legislative committee in Connecticut that “the globe must dramatically shift away from animal products and toward fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and nuts.” Since running for Congress, Rutinel has backtracked, saying that he is no longer a vegan and that “it’s important for me to be able to enjoy the delicious products that Colorado ranchers make.” He’s also stopped calling for Medicare for All and a ban on fracking. Republicans are already jumping onto Rutinel’s vegan past. After Rutinel won his primary, the regional press secretary for the National Republican Campaign Committee posted a photo on X of Rutinel as a college student, shirtless and carrying a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sign. “He is a far-left vegan activist who wants to end animal agriculture,” the post reads.Meat occupies an almost sacred space in American politics—and a particular obsession with it on the right is nothing new. Already this cycle, Republicans have attacked Texas Senate candidate James Talarico over his past comments about reducing meat consumption: “This freak wants to BAN BBQ,” Senator Ted Cruz wrote in an X post. In response, Talarico leaned into meat eating, posing for a photo in a Texas flag shirt while eating barbecue. At an event, he said, “I deny all accusations of veganism.”“Republicans will just be working to portray him as out of step, as too far left for Colorado. That is to some extent what they’re trying to do now with going after vegetarianism,” Masket said about Rutinel. But he’s not terribly worried that Rutinel’s vegan past will hurt his campaign. Unlike in Texas, Masket said, vegetarianism and veganism are well established and understood in Colorado, and the more important dynamic in this election will be voters’ dissatisfaction with Trump, he said. “November is going to be, particularly at the congressional district level, a referendum on the Trump administration,” agreed Robert Preuhs, the chair of the political science department at Metropolitan State University of Denver. The outcome in the 8th district in particular, he added, will “depend to some extent on what the Trump administration does between here and November and the extent to which Dave Evans feels comfortable endorsing those actions.” Rutinel has established himself as a forceful critic of the Trump administration, campaigning adamantly against Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and criticizing Bird for her committee vote against a bill that would prohibit local law enforcement from collaborating with ICE. Rutinel also took a strong stance on artificial intelligence. In 2025, he was a sponsor of a bill that would protect whistleblowers who sought to disclose AI safety issues. Public First Action, an AI-safety PAC, covertly supported Rutinel by giving $2 million to the Latino Victory Fund, Transformer reported on Wednesday. A PAC funded by Chris Larsen, a billionaire cryptocurrency firm founder, also spent $980,000 on the race in favor of Rutinel.Analysts say Rutinel now faces a difficult balancing act: moderating his positions enough to appeal to swing voters, while also keeping his base energized. He’ll have help: The Democratic Party is expected to spend heavily to try to flip this district. The race may wind up being a test of whether culture-war issues—like Rutinel’s past veganism—will matter more to swing voters than ICE and Trump’s record.

Something old: that bang. Something new: opalite earrings. Something borrowed: the entirety of Midtown, and something blue: Travis’s big toe. 

Ahead of the July Fourth holiday and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we speak with the acclaimed scholar Robin D. G. Kelley, who examines how Black radicals have interpreted the document throughout U.S. history in a new essay for Hammer & Hope. Although the declaration famously asserts that “all men are created equal,” Kelley says that clearly did not extend to Indigenous or enslaved Black people. “When the drafters developed this declaration, they assumed that human beings were basically white men,” he says. But despite the “hypocrisy” of the declaration, many Black radicals still found value in its words, including a “justification for rebellion,” says Kelley.

Despite growing evidence of alcohol’s harms, it remains deeply embedded in social norms and cultural rituals, both in the US and abroad.

The Trump administration’s Religious Liberty Commission argues that religious freedom is under attack and blames the ‘wall of separation’ between church and state.

The medical tools of the Revolutionary period help flesh out the picture of what physical well-being felt like for people living in the American colonies 250 years ago.

A little-known law called ERISA bars millions of patients from suing for damages when health insurers wrongly deny claims.

A case involving the potential dangers of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup, relates to broader efforts to protect consumers.