Along with the keys to the White House, victory in the 2024 presidential election came with the additional prize of presiding over a trinity of red-letter events in the American national calendar. Two are sporting: this year’s FIFA World Cup, and the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, held in what should be the last summer of Donald Trump’s second and final term. The third is the semiquincentennial of the founding of the republic. Or, put more simply, America’s 250th birthday.
For its 250th birthday, America is being America
It is entirely fitting that the United States is so splintered on its semiquincentennial. Division, for the lion’s share of its history, has been its default.
By Nick Bryant for ABC’s Long Read