For one night, in the heart of deep-blue Washington, D.C., a fenced-off section of the National Mall became an oasis for members of the MAGA base. They had believed in President Trump from the beginning and carried him triumphantly back to power in 2024, and now they came to the grand opening of America's 250th-birthday celebration in red-white-and-blue headbands, draped in flags, and sporting dangly blue AMERICA earrings. Doubts about anything related to Trump'his abysmal approval ratings, inflation accelerated by the war he started in Iran, his clashes with Republican senators earlier in the day'were, for an evening, drowned out by the roar of fighter jets overhead. Last night's festivities were meant to kick off two weeks in which Americans could come together and commemorate America's semiquincentennial. But a string of artists had pulled out of events in Washington amid concerns that the celebrations would become the Trump show. And indeed, the evening felt like a Trump rally,...
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