Annual Smithsonian summer event held for 50 years is exiled from D.C. so Trump can have his 250th America birthday festival

An annual Smithsonian summer event is being relocated from Washington D.C.’s National Mall to make way for President Trump’s 250th America birthday festival.

The Smithsonian Institution’s Folklife Festival has been held in the capital every summer since 1967, and “honors contemporary living cultural traditions and celebrates those who practice and sustain them,” a description on the institution’s website said.

For decades, the festival has gathered artisans, performers, and speakers from across the country for several weeks around July 4, and as recently as last May, the Smithsonian’s budget submitted to Congress still planned for an “expanded edition” of the festival on the National Mall as usual.

But those plans now appear to have run headfirst into the president’s ambitions to use the Mall for a party of his own, the Great American State Fair, which Trump first announced while campaigning in 2023.

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The Freedom250 initiative will bring flashy events to Washington as part of the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, with recent announcements including an IndyCar race on the streets near the National Mall.

There will also be an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on the White House lawn on June 14 — a date that is both Flag Day and Trump’s 80th birthday.

In a news release on Thursday, the Smithsonian skirted around its earlier plans to once again host the Folklife Festival on the Mall, instead announcing that it would take the festival “on the road” to communities across the country and in three U.S. territories.

“By taking the Folklife Festival beyond Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian will join millions of people in their own communities to commemorate, celebrate and contemplate this national milestone,” the release said.

“Among the featured festivals are the Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival in March in Texas, Concert of Colors in July in Detroit, Montclair Jazz Festival in August in New Jersey, Tucson Meet Yourself in October in Arizona and the National Folk Festival in November in Jackson, Mississippi.”

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The apparent exile from Washington was the latest twist in a frosty relationship between the White House and the Smithsonian, which is not a federal body but relies on the federal government for the majority of its funding.

The institution is a cornerstone of American culture, operating 21 museums and a zoo that are among the most popular tourist destinations in Washington.

President Trump raged against the museums in a social media spree last August: “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

Trump has threatened the Smithsonian’s funding if it continues to promote what he considers “divisive narratives.”

By mid-January, the Smithsonian was supposed to provide lists of all displays, objects, wall text and other material dedicated to this year’s anniversary and other purposes; an ultimatum laid out in a December 18 letter to Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch III from the White House budget director, Russell Vought, and the domestic policy director, Vince Haley.

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“We wish to be assured that none of the leadership of the Smithsonian museums is confused about the fact that the United States has been among the greatest forces for good in the history of the world,” the letter said.

Americans “will have no patience for any museum that is diffident about America’s founding or otherwise uncomfortable conveying a positive view of American history, one which is justifiably proud of our country’s accomplishments and record.”

Among other attempts to appease the administration, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., has swapped out President Donald Trump’s portrait and removed accompanying text that referenced his impeachment and the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots.