A national charter declaring statehood and independence
The State Department is finalising a limited run of commemorative U.S. passports featuring Donald Trump’s portrait to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The designs will be issued this summer at the Washington Passport Agency, with no extra cost and no nationwide mail rollout.
The White House has hosted UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn, a seven-bout card timed to President Trump’s 80th birthday and the US semiquincentennial. The event has drawn legal challenges, cost estimates above $60m and criticism that it blurs public property, private sponsors and presidential interests while thousands watched on the Mall and 4,000 attended on the lawn.
Federal investigators have disrupted an alleged multi-state plot to attack the UFC event on the White House South Lawn. The FBI has arrested five people, identified about 23 participants in encrypted chats, and says the threat was uncovered on June 10, four days before the event that President Donald Trump attended.
The New York Times outlines how a rare Declaration broadsheet is being displayed with a tentative Loudon attribution as part of the 250th independence celebration; the piece emphasizes the collective effort behind independence and the public display of historic documents.
The Trump administration has restricted refugee admissions globally while planning to admit white South Africans, and may for the first time offer welcome kits and materials that present a pro-Trump historical narrative. The policy shift is provoking debate about refugee treatment and racial politics in the United States.