America’s 250th birthday party is here at last. It’s a strange moment to be valorizing the United States, and the general mood of pessimism pervading the country seems reflected in the haphazard celebrations — at least those involving President Trump, who has inserted himself into many of the proceedings. America’s major birthdays weren’t always like this, of course. To get a sense of how the Semiquincentennial differs from celebrations past — specifically, the Bicentennial 50 years ago — and how someone who knows our country’s past is feeling about its present, I spoke with Douglas Brinkley. The renowned presidential historian and Rice University professor has written many popular histories, including The Great Deluge, Cronkite, and Silent Spring Generation.

The official celebrations in Washington are disjointed, weird, and sparsely attended. How are you feeling about them and the Semiquincentennial generally?The America250 celebration is discombobulated. It’s been turned into America250 versus Freedom250. And instead of being a trigger point for uniting the country, it’s just furthering the divide. I say that because President Trump is determined to continue to divide and conquer the American people. It’s his style. He’s disrupting America250 to make people adhere to his vision of America’s triumphalist past. So on a national level, it’s a big disappointment. There’s low attendance on the National Mall, and his whole “state fair” thing never made much sense. The joy of state fairs, and I grew up in Ohio and love them — state fairs are fun because it’s local agriculture and 4-H clubs and community groups and talent contests. The idea that the National Mall was supposed to be a state fair doesn’t make much sense. Everything’s done in a lackluster way.

And last-minute.Lackluster, last minute and ill-conceived in numerous ways. What’s the problem? Why did this happen? First off, Trump connected his 80th birthday to America 250 and decided to unite them as a MAGA fest. And he decided to politicize Independence Day. You saw that with the launch of UFC and the claw on the White House grounds for his birthday. He carried that over to North Dakota and claiming he’s Theodore Roosevelt and talking about how he wishes he should get a Medal of Honor,........

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