photo credit: Representative Jared Huffman/House Natural Resources Committee Democrats
CA 2 Representative Jared Huffman discusses the findings in a report he and Democratic colleagues on the House Natural 
Resources Committee released, looking into the of the Trump Administration and Freedom 250 LLC in planning events 
for the nation's 250th anniversary.

While millions celebrated Saturday fireworks displays, celebrations in the nation's capital were broken up by stormy weather and delays.

A new report on the build-up to America's 250th anniversary, led by North Bay representative Jared Huffman, argues that Saturday's events in Washington DC weren't the only part of the semiquincentennial that didn't go according to plan. 

Released by Representative Jared Huffman just two days before the Fourth of July, the investigation looks closely at the company the Trump administration stood up to organize events for the 250th anniversary.

"America's 250th birthday is being run by a shadow company you've never heard of," Huffman said in video discussing findings in the report. "Freedom 250 has raised millions of dollars. It's selling access to the President and it won't tell you who's paying or where the money goes."

Over the last year, Huffman and others who released the report, say they took a deep look at Freedom 250 LLC.

It's an alternative to the non-partisan America 250 organization created by Congress in 2016 to officially organize events for this year's celebrations.

"Donald Trump decided he wanted something different," Huffman said in the video accompanying the report's release. "So first, he tried to take over America 250. His appointee to the commission teamed up with the Speaker of the House in an attempt to push four commissioners out of their seats and replace them with MAGA loyalists. When that didn't work, Trump created his own shadow entity to circumvent and supplant America 250."

Huffman alleged Freedom 250 displays provided an explicitly partisan and sectarian bent. The Freedom 250 organization, in an emailed statement to KRCB News Monday said all the claims are categorically false.

According to Freedom 250 spokesperson Danielle Alvarez, "this so-called ‘report’ is nothing more than a partisan smear from politicians who would rather manufacture division than celebrate America’s 250th birthday alongside the rest of the country." 

Alvarez also stated that Freedom 250 is not accepting foreign donations.

Huffman, meanwhile, alleged the Trump administration purposely redirected money meant to be used by the official America 250 non-partisan organization to plan events for this year.

"Congress had set aside $150 million to celebrate our 250th," Huffman said later in the video. "The America 250 Commission was promised $100 million of that funding. But in November of 2025, the White House told the America 250 chairwoman she would only get $50 million. And in the months that followed, they whittled it down to just $25 million. The rest of the money was taken by Freedom 250. Between this and other redirected funds, hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars are now unaccounted for."

Huffman suggested the administration may even have committed wire fraud by directing unsuspecting donors to Freedom 250, who would otherwise have donated to the official America 250 organization.

Freedom 250 said, "after 10 years and more than $120 million spent, America 250 had nothing to show for it. Worse, they lost sight of the mission." Spokesperson Alvarez said, "claims that federal funds were 'diverted' from America250 to Freedom250 are baseless. The legislation didn’t designate funding exclusively to either organization, so no pool of money could have been redirected in the way the report suggests."

Huffman's entire 55 page interim report - titled "From Vanity to Insanity" - is available online.

Huffman said the goal is to bring scrutiny to the administration's 250th anniversary event planning to prevent more betrayal's of the public trust in the future.