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Art and war: Israeli and Palestinian artists reflect on Oct. 7 and the crisis in Gaza
Rana Samara, a Palestinian artist from Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
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Rana Samara, a Palestinian artist from Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Tanya Habjouqa/NOOR Images for NPR
In Israel’s cultural capital of Tel Aviv, a vibrant artistic community leaves its colorful mark with murals and other art painted throughout the narrow streets of the city’s ancient Jaffa neighborhood and on the walls of businesses within the financial-centered downtown.
Within this same space is a Palestinian community that has long turned to art as a form of resistance, using it to bring light to the struggles of Palestinians in Tel Aviv, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.
Since Oct. 7, much of this work has turned heartbroken, mournful, angry and fearful, as members of these artistic communities confront heavy, unimaginable emotions that are bleeding into their craft.
More than 1,200 people in Israel were killed on that day and hundreds of others were kidnapped by Hamas. In response, Israel launched a now months-old war in Gaza that has killed more than 22,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly two million others.
Artists are processing the crisis in a myriad of ways: through paintings of the horrors of war, through anguished song and in dance. The work has been shared in places like Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, where protesters regularly gather to demand the release of Israeli captives being held by Hamas, and on social media, where a Palestinian diaspora say they can more safely post their work than those still living under the Israeli government.
“I think that if art can function as something, not only for the viewer, but for myself, it’s to create a space for reflection and reassessing and trying to dissect and process and understand,” said Addam Yekutieli, an Israeli artist based in Tel Aviv.
NPR spoke to Yekutieli and five other Israeli and Palestinian artists on how the war between Israel and Hamas has affected their lives and their work.
Each artist took time to reflect on Oct. 7 and its aftermath, sharing stories of fear, anger, sadness and pain.
Rana Samara
“In times of stress, usually people go for black, people go for dark colors,” said Rana Samara, a Palestinian artist from Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. “I found that now, my stress has come out with very, very, very bright colors.”
Samara’s work frequently uses bright paint to explore topics like sexuality, gender roles and other issues tied to Palestinian life. When war broke out in Gaza, she decided to turn to the images she was seeing on TV and social media and weave it into her work.
Samara is part of a group of Palestinian artists that joined with the Zawyeh Gallery in Ramallah to create work to help raise money for humanitarian aid in Gaza.
“What caught my mind and heart in what I was watching about this war was the issue of children. And so I looked and I concentrated on what each child was carrying” as they evacuated their homes in Gaza, she said.
For one piece, Samara decided to create a type of poster of these different scenes of children fleeing their homes using bright reds and pinks. Using the image of the children’s piggy bank, for example, she incorporated the war.
“My idea was a piggy bank and inside a tank,” she said. At first look, it’s an attractive, colorful, bright picture, “but when you get close to it, it’s the bleak image. It’s the tank.”
Michal Worke—an Israeli artist with Ethiopian roots, shares her studio space and artwork.
Tanya Habjouqa / NOOR Images for NPR
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Michal Worke—an Israeli artist with Ethiopian roots, shares her studio space and artwork.
Tanya Habjouqa / NOOR Images for NPR
Michal Worke
Before Oct. 7, many of Michal Worke’s paintings had rich purples and vibrant patterns that reflected her travels in Ethiopia and South Africa.
But now, the colors in her latest works are muted with blues and grays.
“It started with the shock of the kidnappings, and the murders and disasters,” she said of the attack by Hamas militants.
Worke, who is a Jewish Israeli of Ethiopian descent, found that the footage on social media and on the news of the attack wove itself into her psyche.
“I think I responded like everyone to the trauma that we saw. It was really hard for me. I started having dreams that they are coming for me, and they start shooting and I didn’t know where to hide or where to go,” she said.
In the early days after the attack, Worke said she was avoiding the studio and turning more inward to collect her thoughts and take stock of her emotions.
Michal Worke—an Israeli artist with Ethiopian roots, shares her studio space and artwork.
Tanya Habjouqa / NOOR Images for NPR
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Michal Worke—an Israeli artist with Ethiopian roots, shares her studio space and artwork.
Tanya Habjouqa / NOOR Images for NPR
Worke is a painter that has long advocated for the release of Avera Mengistu, a fellow Israeli of Ethiopian descent that has been in Hamas custody for nine years. She regularly paints Mengistu and his family, sharing her work online.
Since Oct. 7, she’s seen the abundance of artwork created in honor of the fallen and the more than 240 hostages taken by Hamas that day, of which more than 100 remain in captivity.
“But not for Avera. He isn’t there, his face isn’t anywhere,” she said.
So, in response she’s worked to continue to amplify Mengistu’s story so that he isn’t forgotten.
Worke has also begun painting other things about the war and the interconnectedness she is finding between the war and her Ethiopian community.
“Many Ethiopian soldiers have died,” she said. “Ninety percent of Ethiopians [in Israel] go to combat units. It’s the highest percentage of any community. So many have died.”
She’s incorporated the untold stories of Israeli soldiers of Ethiopian descent fighting in Gaza into works that also raise awareness for Mengistu.
In one piece, a soldier dressed in his uniform is sitting comfortably by a fence splitting southern Israel with Gaza. On the margins, Worke includes the number of days Mengistu has been in custody. Along the ground of the painting are pieces of bloodstained uniforms.
“This is from a series of larger paintings I’m working on. And you can see the jump between this painting and the others. The difference in the colors and the themes,” she said. “These paintings were done only three months apart.”
Renowned singer-songwriter Bashar Murad on his studio balcony in East Jerusalem.
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Renowned singer-songwriter Bashar Murad on his studio balcony in East Jerusalem.
Tanya Habjouqa / NOOR Images for NPR
Bashar Murad
Bashar Murad has long used pop music as a tool to express his experience as a Palestinian born within the “oppression” of the Israeli government, he said.
“I create pop music that kind of reflects my experience as a human born in this place and all the complexities that come with being born in this place,” he says. “I believe in the power of pop music to reach the masses to help share and spread messages of equality and love, which is what pop music is all about.”
Murad frequently used social media to share his music and thoughts. That all changed shortly after war broke out in Gaza.
He said the feelings of depression and shock that struck him in the hours and days that followed left him homebound and essentially bed-ridden.
“For the first 20 days, I didn’t go out of my room, basically,” he said.
“The sad thing is that for a lot of people in the world, this feels like it’s the first time that these events are happening,” Murad said. “We have gone through a cycle of this ongoing violence. I’ve already written countless songs already throughout the years that actually talk about the same feeling that I’m feeling now. Maybe now it is times 1 million. But it’s the same feeling. It’s the same feeling of powerlessness and helplessness.”
This time there also emerged a new level of fear that Murad and other Palestinian artists hadn’t quite felt before. After the war began, Palestinians in Israel reported discrimination, firings and other threats of violence for simple social media posts criticizing the war.
That scared many Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza into silence, Murad said.
“It’s very dangerous for us artists, right now. There’s major censorship that is happening,” he said. “There is a war on the ground, there’s a war on social media, but there’s also a mental war and a war on our identities.”
Murad said he is trying to “be smarter with what I post” — a sentiment that Samara, the painter in Ramallah, also shared.
He said the fighting is not just a war with Gaza, “It’s a war on all Palestinians and all Palestinian identity.” He called it a “continuous struggle,” adding, “it’s not something that starts with an attack and ends with a ceasefire.”
Artist Addam Yekutieli with his dog in his studio. He works with testimonials from Palestinians, Israelis and others, including images of wounds and healing.
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Artist Addam Yekutieli with his dog in his studio. He works with testimonials from Palestinians, Israelis and others, including images of wounds and healing.
Tanya Habjouqa / NOOR Images for NPR
Addam Yekutieli
“In how many ways can your heart break?”
“Whose trauma speaks louder than whose?”
“Can we ever be well?”
These are questions Addam Yekutieli has had rolling around in his mind ever since Oct. 7.
Yekutieli is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tel Aviv. In his ongoing projects, he has reflected on the ideas of scars and borders and the effect they have on people geographically, physically and psychologically.
“I’ve always dealt with kind of like political or social themes, but for a very long time, they were much more metaphorical than they are now,” he said.
Yekutieli, like Worke, found it difficult to return to his normal workload after Oct. 7. About a month after the attacks, Yekutieli spoke about how his work has changed since the outbreak of the war.
“I haven’t really made any art since October 7,” he said in November. “I’ve been mainly writing since then.”
Artist Addam Yekutieli works with testimonials to make a collage.
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Artist Addam Yekutieli works with testimonials to make a collage.
Tanya Habjouqa / NOOR Images for NPR
And what he’s been writing is a long list of questions he has on his mind and has shared it on social media. He calls these posts “questions with no answers.”
“Over the past month and a half, I’ve had so many internal conversations and dialogues and kind of been really like talking myself into circles,” he said.
He posts questions like “What are your five stages of grief?” and “If you had it your way, what would happen?”
“I think that I just feel more comfortable with asking questions more than making statements. They feel more honest. It feels more of an authentic place to be in. And, I think that it also allows more reflection,” he said.
He said the tragedy shook him on a foundational level.
“I think that there are parts of me that feels very naïve. But it feels like everything is spiraling out of control, and becoming progressively worse and worse,” he said.
Yekutieli acknowledged that as an Israeli artist he has a level of privilege to more comfortably share his thoughts and questions on a public domain like Instagram than his Palestinian artist peers who fear reprisal for doing so.
He believes a lot of the hostility toward Palestinians, activists and Israelis critical of their government comes from a place of deep desperation and grief.
“I think that things are very, very emotional,” he said. “And at the same time, I really think that it’s important, as much as we can, and as much as one feels comfortable with, to keep on being vocal.”
Hanna Tams (left) leads a dance class in his studio in East Jerusalem. Since Oct. 7, Tams says that he’s been able to use dance to express himself amidst the oppression he feels as a Palestinian in Jerusalem. ‘It’s not easy,” he said, “but I believe that it is really an important time to use dance.”
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Hanna Tams (left) leads a dance class in his studio in East Jerusalem. Since Oct. 7, Tams says that he’s been able to use dance to express himself amidst the oppression he feels as a Palestinian in Jerusalem. ‘It’s not easy,” he said, “but I believe that it is really an important time to use dance.”
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
Hanna Tams
Dance has always been a source of healing for Hanna Tams, a professional dancer that specializes in contemporary and dabka styles.
As a Palestinian living in Jerusalem, Tams has faced oppression his whole life, he said. After the war broke out, it became even more complex and tense than before, he said.
“I was lucky to find dance as a friend,” he said. “I can resist through dancing. Other people don’t have this luxury.”
Tams is the founder of Douban Art Studio, which he opened in 2020 to serve his community’s youth to work through their emotions and struggles in a safe way.
But after Oct. 7, he retreated into himself and closed the studio for two weeks.
“I really wasn’t able to do anything and I wasn’t feeling up to dance. I was sick,” he said.
It was the community he’s worked to serve that reached out to beg him to reopen and help the kids stuck at home.
Dancers rehearse in Hanna Tams’s studio in East Jerusalem.
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Dancers rehearse in Hanna Tams’s studio in East Jerusalem.
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
They told him, “‘It’s the kids who are suffering. The kids have no school, they are at home and they are watching TV with us. They are afraid,’” Tams said.
He reopened the studio, but not without difficulty. The studio is in East Jerusalem, in an area where Israeli soldiers constantly patrol the streets and stop Palestinian residents.
“It’s really frightening because every time I will be approached by a soldier who starts asking me why you’re coming here and you’re not allowed,” he said.
In November, Tams was able to perform in a timely show in Switzerland called “Last Things Remaining.” The show involved four dancers telling the story of Palestinians and the resilience it takes to live in this region.
He returned saying, “I need to serve this community. I need to serve these people who don’t have anything.”
When asked how he could still turn to art and especially dance in such a hard time, he said, “For me, the only way I can really help and I can really kind of connect, it’s [through] dancing.”
He continued, “I think art is kind of the language of every culture, and it’s the language of hearts. So if you want to [get at] every heart, I think art is needed.”
Oren Fischer—an Israeli artist—shares his sketch book in a park outside a cafe. He is from a kibbutz in the south of Israel, and creates political commentary on recent events.
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Oren Fischer—an Israeli artist—shares his sketch book in a park outside a cafe. He is from a kibbutz in the south of Israel, and creates political commentary on recent events.
Tanya Habjouqa / NOOR Images for NPR
Oren Fischer
After the war started, Oren Fischer said he reached a point where he just couldn’t deal with any more words.
“So I started painting,” he said.
In the first two weeks after the attacks, Fischer said he slept horribly and had nightmares based on what he was seeing on TV and social media.
He decided to make a change: Instead of doom scrolling each morning, Fischer would instead wake up and meditate on his feelings and “just try to puke it on the papers.”
Fischer, an artist who uses different mediums in his work like video, illustration and textiles, has been using paint and crayon in his sketchbook for these daily pieces. He describes his paintings as “childish” and “naïve” in a way even as it portrays horrors of the Oct. 7 attacks and the war.
“I thought, okay, if it’s bothering me, it’s probably something people really relate to. It’s probably not just me thinking about this,” he said.
“It helped me to heal myself. I made sort of a routine that I wake up and for a few hours I paint and upload on social media,” he said. “So I created my own world inside the catastrophe.”
Oren Fischer’s political cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Oren Fischer’s political cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Tanya Habjouqa/NOOR Images for NPR
Like much of his past work, this series of paintings has been deeply critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, blaming their policies as the spark that led to the attack.
Fischer painted a sketch of Netanyahu with vibrant reds, yellows, oranges and blues of the prime minister with blood on his hands. In the background are Hamas attackers shooting people and homes burning. The image was later used on the cover of an Israeli newspaper.
Fischer said his work has been criticized by some people who misunderstood his sketches as him attacking Palestinians, when the work is really turning criticism to the Israeli government.
Ultimately, Fischer said the impact of the attacks and the ongoing war “is everywhere. You cannot hide from it.”
NPR’s Jaclyn Diaz reported from Tel Aviv, Ramallah and Jerusalem. Freelance producer Eve Guterman contributed to this report.
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“E Pluribus Unum,” or “Out of many, one.”
That phrase, engraved on some quarters photographer Blaise Hayward was counting in his New York City kitchen in July 2023, intrigued him. They were marks of the 50 State Quarters, a series of coins issued by the U.S. Mint from 1999 to 2008 for which each coin featured a symbol representing one of the 50 states.
With Hayward’s growing concern about the vitriolic condition of American politics, the phrase felt resonant.
Blaise Hayward looks over printed works of his “Quarters of Confederation” series, highlighting Canadian coins.
(Blake Ogden)
That moment sparked his photo series, “America ~ The Statehood Quarters,” and sent him on a quest to the bank to find every coin. Now a collection of 50 images, one for each state’s quarter, the series explores American unity, shared history and constant exchange.
“My goal was to gather these coins and present them in a cohesive, inclusive manner. Every state is represented,” Hayward said. “Everybody’s equal. It’s about equality, representation.”
Those interested can find his photos on his website, where he sells editioned images of the coins, ranging from $1,200 to $5,000.
Ahead of the United States’ 250th anniversary on Saturday, Hayward reflects on the series and its relevance today.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Your photographs remind me of portraits. As large close-ups, each quarter has a unique character. Tell me about your approach to capturing them.
I started my career in the 1980s, and I was an analog photographer. I was late to digital. These are all captured digitally, as is most of my work now, but the most important aspect to my work is that it has an analog feel to it.
My goal was to present it as realistically and honestly as possible. I photographed them as they are, and I also do that with my portraiture. I’m a portrait photographer at heart, and portraiture is my first love. But I’ve found with my fine art career that unless they’re famous people, people aren’t drawn to buying portraits and hanging them in their house. But they are drawn to still life, so a lot of my artwork now is centered on still life. My portrait background probably played a subconscious role in how I presented the quarters.
The California state quarter.
(Blaise Hayward)
In your photographs, the quarters are old and tarnished, not shiny and new. Why?
That was important to me. If you go onto Wikipedia and type in “Statehood Quarters,” they photographed all 50 of them. They’re bright, shiny, right out of the Mint. I made a conscious decision to photograph them in circulation. I wanted them to emulate the hands they’ve passed through and illustrate the history of the country and the state.
How do you think about the people who held these quarters in relation to the project as a whole?
I think it tells the story of commerce and the story of exchange. I imagine there are a couple in there where people saved up some quarters and bought something personal. Some of these quarters could’ve been collected by children, and then they could’ve gone out and bought their first candy bar. Or they could’ve put the quarters in the soda fountain machine and got a Coca-Cola and been so excited.
I’m very attached to coins and bills. I see the artistry in it. It’s unfortunate that we’re going toward a society where we won’t have that tactile feeling anymore. There’s a difference between holding a handful of money and paying for a good than pulling your phone out and tapping.
The Delaware state quarter.
(Blaise Hayward)
You’re originally from Toronto, and have lived in New York for the last 30 years. How has living in the U.S. as an immigrant shaped the way you perceive America and represent it in this series?
It allows me to be an outsider looking in. I love the fact that I’m Canadian. It’s a badge of honor for me. It allows me to have a more sympathetic, wider and different understanding of what it’s like to live in the States.
With the “Statehood Quarters,” I don’t know if it influenced me when I photographed the project. I was just in awe of the history. If you start reading about the States and how the whole country came together, all of the people that made that journey were immigrants. Unless you’re Native American, we’re all immigrants here. I thought about that a couple of times because I was reading about the people that started it all.
Your series centers unity in a time of extreme divisiveness in American politics, whether it’s surrounding the federal crackdown on immigration or LGBTQ+ rights, among other issues. What does “unity” look like to you in this context? What do you feel Americans should be united on?
Americans could stand to be united on what a great country this is, even though at this present moment it’s not feeling like that for everybody. America is a great country. It’s been a beacon of democracy since its founding, and countries all over the world have held it in such high esteem.
Without giving away my political leanings — I don’t even mean to go there — sadly, in this present moment, I don’t think the country is showing its best self. We could stand to take a step back and reflect on the history and unity of the country. We could stand some compassion. We could stand some understanding. We could stand to be better listeners.
We don’t always have to agree. It’s just vitriol out there. It’s tearing the country apart. I think it will be a collective effort on both sides of the aisle for us to come together and dial the heat down.
I’m hoping that on this 250th anniversary, people put their political leanings aside and celebrate America. It’s got so much potential to be that beacon again, that leader in the world. At the end of the day, why can’t we just embrace “E Pluribus Unum”? Out of many, we are one. We are one nation.
For many people, America’s 250th anniversary will be a time of celebration and patriotism. For many others, it will be a time of criticism and protest. How do you feel your series engages each of these attitudes?
I hope that people look at the series and look at the country in a broader stroke, and say, “Wow. What an amazing collection. This ‘Statehood Quarters’ collection is so inclusive and symbolic of this great nation. Look at all these beautiful coins from these beautiful states.”
Kansas is one of my favorite coins. I’ve never been to Kansas, but the coin in the collection made me appreciate the state. It has gotten me thinking I’d like to visit every state and meet the people and have a meal and see what they’re like and see the landscape. I hope this collection inspires people to celebrate the country as a whole rather than looking at it state to state.
The Kansas Statehood Quarter.
(Blaise Hayward)
What does it mean to “celebrate the country”?
I’m an outdoor person and a nature person. For me, it means celebrating the land, and with that, celebrating the people in that land.
I was listening to somebody on the radio who was here for the World Cup. They were from Morocco, and they said every person they’ve met in New York has been so nice.
It’s time for this country to start being nicer to each other. I hope this project helps people be a little bit more kind to each other, a little bit more tolerant, a little bit more understanding, a little bit more loving and a little bit more hospitable.
President Trump speaks at a rally kicking off the Great American State Fair last week, part of the anniversary celebrations organized by White House-backed group Freedom 250.
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Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
As America’s birthday celebrations kick into high gear, so too do criticisms of the preeminent national group organizing them, Freedom 250.
Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee published a 55-page report Thursday accusing the group of aiding President Trump in turning America’s milestone into a “hotbed of corruption and self-enrichment” through tactics that potentially amount to criminal fraud.
It’s titled “From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People out of their 250th Birthday.”
Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the ranking Democrat on the committee, told NPR that the report was months in the making. It is based on interviews with unnamed whistleblowers, sworn Congressional testimony, internal Freedom 250 documents and other written responses.
“We put it all together to really tell the story … of how Donald Trump hijacked what should have been a unifying national celebration and repurposed it for his own interests,” Huffman said in a Zoom interview. “This was a team of operatives using the Freedom 250 shell company, but it was also Donald Trump himself telling them what to do.”
The White House referred a request for comment to Freedom 250, though Freedom 250 told NPR that it does not speak for the White House.
Freedom 250 is the public-private partnership behind some of the summer’s most high-profile anniversary events, including a UFC fight outside the White House in June, a controversial state fair on the National Mall, a July Fourth fireworks show opening with a Trump rally, and the “Patriot Games,” a high school athletic competition scheduled for August.
It was created via executive order last year, and describes itself as “the national, non-partisan organization leading the celebration of our Nation’s 250th birthday.” But it’s not the only one: Congress had created a nonpartisan commission called America250 for this same purpose in 2016.
Democratic critics and watchdog groups say Trump decided to forge ahead with his own group after unsuccessful attempts to pack America 250 with his allies. Freedom 250 was incorporated as an LLC in October 2025 under the National Park Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the National Park Service, whose board now includes a number of Trump loyalists, including Chris LaCivita, senior adviser on his 2024 campaign.
Visitors can buy Freedom 250 merchandise at the state fair on the National Mall.
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Thursday’s report describes Freedom 250 as “a shadow organization capable of infiltrating the celebrations and injecting America’s 250th with Trump’s extreme, partisan agenda.”
Several of its events, like the “Great American State Fair” and a prayer gathering on the National Mall, have been criticized for their sanitized presentation of history and overtly Christian bent. The report accuses the group of funding its programming through opaque and questionable avenues, including soliciting foreign funds, misleading donors and selling access to the president.
“Once you siphon off the funds and supplant the real bipartisan commission with this new entity and you declare it the main platform for our nation’s celebration, and you award all these shady contracts to your friends, you can do anything you want,” Huffman said. “And what these folks chose to do was to push a very divisive, very extreme and explicitly sectarian religious agenda into all these materials in our name, using our taxpayer dollars.”
Some of the accusations, if true, could be found to violate federal law. For example, the report alleges that the deception of donors who thought they were supporting America250 — but were actually given banking information for Freedom 250 — could constitute wire fraud.
Freedom 250 spokesperson Danielle Alvarez denied the report’s claims as “categorically false,” calling it a “partisan smear.”
“Congressional members should be ashamed they are spending countless hours fabricating a report instead of joining Americans in creating an absolutely beautiful celebration,” Alvarez wrote in a statement shared with NPR.
The report has not been adopted by the Natural Resources Committee, so does not reflect its official view. Republicans on the committee have so far refused to conduct any oversight on the issue, despite Democrats raising concerns at previous hearings. Republican ranking member Rep. Bruce Westerman did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.
Huffman said his team had tried for nearly a year to get information from Freedom 250, but faced “resistance and obstruction every step of the way.”
“I would hope that Freedom 250, if they claim that … there’s nothing to see here, open up your books,” he said. “Give us the documents that we’ve asked for, and the information we’ve asked for.”
Huffman said his investigation will continue well past July Fourth, especially if Democrats reclaim the House in this fall’s midterm elections. In that case, he didn’t rule out the possibility of subpoenas or criminal referrals if applicable.
Regardless, he believes more information and witnesses will come to light — and says a full accounting is critical to prevent such a playbook from being used again.
“We may not be able to undo the damage they’ve done to us and the national celebration,” Huffman said. “But we can do something very patriotic by reminding everyone that our government belongs to all of us, not to Donald Trump.”
What the report alleges
Trump also wants to commemorate the anniversary by building a 250-foot arch, a replica of which stands at the state fair.
Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images
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Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images
The report accuses Trump of long wanting to place himself at the center of the anniversary agenda. It points to events held on his birthdays — last year’s Army 250th parade and this year’s White House UFC fight — and longer-term projects like his plans to build a 250-foot-tall triumphal arch.
It alleges that when America250 resisted that vision, the Trump administration turned the National Park Foundation from a “beloved nonprofit into a presidential shell” by standing up Freedom 250 under its auspices.
It is not clear where that directive came from: Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, who serves as ex officio director of the foundation’s board, testified before Congress in May that he was “not aware of the final decision maker on Freedom 250.” That same month, he told CNN the organization is “run out of the White House.”
In any case, Freedom 250 emerged with more visibility and more federal funding than America250.
Alvarez, of Freedom 250, says it “stepped in to rescue our nation’s 250th birthday from years of wasted time, wasted money, and failed planning.” But the report argues it supplanted America250 “through a series of diversions and misrepresentations that drained the chartered Commission of the resources it needed to function.”
The report says Congress allocated $150 million in federal funds last year to the Interior Department for events celebrating the 250th anniversary, with the “understanding” that $100 million of that would go to America250. The group has only received $25 million, it says, citing unnamed sources.
A statement from Freedom 250 says no funds were specifically earmarked for one entity over the other, so “claims that federal funds were ‘diverted’ from America250 to Freedom250 are baseless.”
When asked for comment, America250 Chair Rosie Rios — who served as U.S. treasurer under President Obama — did not address the report. She said the organization “will continue to focus on the values-based programming approved by our bipartisan Commission” and is “supportive” of organizations planning events for the 250th.
The America250 logo is seen on a White House Christmas tree skirt in December. That group is less visible than Freedom 250, but is planning many community-based anniversary events and a concert in Los Angeles.
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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The report alleges that Freedom 250 was advertised as an addition to America250 rather than as its replacement, creating confusion. For example, many of the performers who withdrew from a scheduled concert last month said they had falsely believed the event was nonpartisan (it was later rebranded as a Trump rally).
The report alleges that Freedom 250 capitalized on donors’ confusion in a way that potentially amounts to fraud.
“Donors who intended to support America250 were misled and apparently provided with Freedom 250’s banking information, meaning contributions solicited in the name of the nation’s nonpartisan birthday foundation were routed instead to the President’s substitute entity,” it reads.
Freedom 250 said in a statement that “every major sponsor received documentation identifying Freedom 250 as the recipient’s organization before funds were transferred, and donors were free to decline.”
Alan Zibel, a researcher with the progressive consumer advocacy nonprofit Public Citizen, called those allegations “very troubling.” He applauded House Democrats for looking into them, even though they don’t have subpoena power at the moment.
“They’ve given House Democrats, should they take the majority next year, months and months of investigative work to do,” he said. “And there are some pretty rich target opportunities.”
Many questions remain
The Freedom 250 logo is visible on fencing around the National Mall on Thursday.
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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
The bigger-picture problem, critics say, is the lack of transparency throughout the entire process.
“All of these things have been so thoroughly conducted outside of public view,” said Toni Aguilar Rosenthal, a program director at the nonprofit Revolving Door Project. “But I think the House Dems’ report is an excellent extension of those sort of remaining questions that continue to plague just the entire situation and Freedom 250 organizationally.”
Aguilar Rosenthal co-authored a separate report on Freedom 250’s contracts and tactics, along with Zibel from Public Citizen.
Based on their analysis, Aguilar Rosenthal said of the more than $120 million in public funds funneled toward the anniversary celebrations, over $100 million has been “funneled” directly to projects, events and entities with ties to the Trump administration.
Some of those public contracts raise particular alarm among watchdogs. Federal contracts have directed tens of millions of dollars to a company called Event Strategies, Inc., which helped organize Trump’s infamous rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“They had a chance to do this in a bipartisan way or a way that wouldn’t enrich cronies, but they pretty clearly didn’t do that,” said Zibel. “I think that this is a follow-the-money situation that needs to be explored.”
Zibel says many companies — including major defense contractors and tech firms — that have donated to the 250th celebrations also rely on the government for contracts, funding and regulatory oversight. The report mentions that Freedom 250 circulated sponsorship packages culminating in a photo op with Trump, effectively selling access to the president.
Both reports raised questions about potential foreign influence. Alvarez, of Freedom 250, says it does not accept foreign donations.
But Keith Krach, a former Trump administration official who is the CEO of Freedom 250, appeared to solicit just that while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year, offering “toolkits for countries, states, companies, all of that.”
“What could be funner than marketing America, or really marketing freedom,” Krach said.
There is little visibility into the origins and destinations of donations in general, Aguilar Rosenthal says. Best case, they are still being used for some of America250’s original goals, she says. Worst case, she says, “public dollars and funds that have been earmarked for semiquincentennial celebrations are being used as a slush fund” for the administration and its political allies.
The report says the National Park Foundation’s donor structure “conceals the identities of those who give and the benefits they may be promised in return.” And at a congressional hearing in February, the foundation’s president and CEO, Jeff Reinbold, promised anonymity for any Freedom 250 donors who requested it (but said donations would otherwise be disclosed in the regular reporting process).
Huffman conceded that any anniversary celebration of this scale would merit scrutiny over spending and contracts. But he said if this had been organized by the bipartisan commission that Congress authorized — with representation from both parties to ask questions and do oversight — it would have been more transparent.
“There would have been public reporting,” he said, “because a publicly-created commission from Congress can’t hide behind the cloak of secrecy of an LLC.”
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