This Land Was Made for You and Me. Not Just Trump.

Our nation’s foundation lies in its written documents. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights stand out as pivotal texts. To mark America’s 250th anniversary, my wife, Ann, organized a special event at Planet Word in Washington, an immersive museum dedicated to promoting literacy. Nolan Williams Jr., a renowned singer-composer, led a singalong featuring American classics, with Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” as a highlight.

Despite the 100-degree heat, a crowd of 300 people filled the museum’s main hall. People of all ages and backgrounds sang enthusiastically together. The atmosphere brimmed with joy and unity, leaving many attendees wishing the entire country could echo such harmony daily. A recurring question was, “Why aren’t we singing these songs together on the National Mall?”

This sentiment contrasts sharply with a different version of “This Land Is Your Land” heard on the National Mall later. It evoked a Trump variation with the imagined lyrics, “This land is my land, this land is my land / From California to the New York island / From my cryptocurrency to the Qatari 747 / This land belongs to me and mine.”

President Trump is notably consistent, never surprising on the upside. His focus has never been on being the president of all people, but solely on his base. His strategy relies on division rather than unity.

Shawn McCreesh, a newsroom colleague, reported from the mall: “Mr. Trump used the nation’s birthday to stir fears about Democrats, four months before the midterms. He spoke extensively about ‘communism’ and demanded legislation to make voting harder.” Shawn noted, “What could have been the centerpiece of the 250th-anniversary celebration turned into another Trump rally.”

On the same Fourth of July, colleagues Eric Lipton and David Yaffe-Bellany highlighted that nearly one million people who invested in President Trump’s memecoin suffered losses by the end of June. According to cryptocurrency analytics firm Nansen, these losses totaled $3.81 billion. They reported this after Trump disclosed that the same crypto investment resulted in a $636 million gain for him. Overall, his ventures amassed at least $2.2 billion in 2025.