WASHINGTON — Two partners are each taking the lead in a dance to celebrate America’s 250th birthday next year: Rosie Rios, chair of a bipartisan commission created by Congress to plan events to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and President Donald Trump, chair of a White House task force that is making its own plans.

While Trump and his appointees have pushed to put his face on many of the so-called semiquincentennial events, Rios’ 24-member commission and its advisers have largely maintained control over a national jubilee that will kick off in earnest around New Year’s Day.

To Rios, the former U.S. treasurer in the Obama administration who joined the commission two years after its 2016 establishment and became chair in 2022, it’s all going according to plan: The president has the reins for events in Washington, D.C., while the commission’s plans, laid out in a 56-page “playbook,” take place throughout the country.

“How the administration or the Supreme Court or any other branch of the government wants to launch their own initiatives, that is their prerogative,” Rios said in an interview with CQ Roll Call. “This president deserves every right to lead a celebration in the way that he wants to lead a celebration. And we are supportive as it relates to our playbook, as relates to our programming and as it relates to our partnership.”

Rios said she reached out to the Trump team shortly after he won the 2024 election. Her message: create a White House task force and take the lead on the celebration in Washington, including the parade, fireworks and events on the National Mall on July 4.

Trump created his America 250 task force less than 10 days after his inauguration and, naming himself chairman, started to unveil his plans for the celebration: a National Garden of American Heroes, an Ultimate Fighting Championship bout at the White House on June 14 (his 80th birthday) and a parade in Washington on July 4.

“The administration is taking the lead on D.C., as they should. That was my recommendation,” Rios said. “This is the first time ever that any administration would have the ability to create a master plan that includes everything from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, from the Ellipse to the Kennedy Center, the entire mall and the parade. And that’s exactly how we’re working.”

Rios was guided by history when she suggested that the White House form its own task force. She noted that a commission similar to hers was established to plan for the bicentennial in 1976, but it was disbanded in 1973 amid concerns that President Richard Nixon would use it for political purposes.

“No politics, just purpose for us,” she said. “Every single commissioner has agreed that no politics is allowed at our commission meetings. You will never, ever hear any ideology — political, religious or otherwise — at our commission meetings. That’s not a discussion.”

That hasn’t been the case for Trump. He used a semiquincentennial kickoff event in Iowa this summer as an opportunity to blast Democrats for failing to support the GOP’s “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation bill. “I hate them,” he said. “I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country.”

‘Something for every American’

The U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, better known as America250, was created by Congress in July 2016, with eight members of the House and Senate from both parties, 16 citizen members and 12 nonvoting members representing federal agencies.

The first chairman appointed by Trump was Philadelphia developer Dan DiLella, but he resigned in 2022 after becoming embroiled in litigation over his management style. President Joe Biden tapped Rios to take over.

Rios, who grew up in California as one of nine children of Mexican immigrants, is a Harvard-educated professional in economic development who came to Washington in 2005 to help return a Major League Baseball team to the city. She also worked on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, which led to her appointment as treasurer in 2009, a post she held until 2016. She was appointed to the America250 commission two years later.

Since becoming chair of the commission in July 2022, Rios has led development of plans that include sponsoring field trips to historic sites for students who submit presentations on America, raising funds from corporate sponsors and a program to be launched on Jan. 1 called “America Gives,” with a call for volunteer service and charitable giving.

Rios vividly recalls the bicentennial celebrations when she was in the fifth grade in Hayward, Calif., near San Francisco.

“I only have fabulous memories of that period,” she said, recalling how “Schoolhouse Rock” commemorated the anniversary on television. “I remember taking the field trip to go see the Freedom Train. I remember seeing the tall ships coming through the Boston and New York harbors on our black-and-white TV. But for me, it’s not just a memory. It is a feeling.

“People ask me all the time, ‘What are you hoping for in 2026 that will be the legacy of this celebration?’ My answer is the same: I want as many Americans as possible to feel like this is the land of opportunity all over again.”

The commission’s slogan is “350 for 250,” with plans to engage all 350 million Americans in the celebration next year. “While we cannot be all things to all Americans, we have something for every American,” she said. “And it’s up to every American to pick and choose how they want to participate. And that’s the way we designed this playbook.”

Trump and turmoil

At her recommendation, Rios said, Trump established his Task Force 250 in January by executive order, inviting the America250 commission to provide it with “recommendations and advice” for planning events.

Meanwhile, bipartisan support for the commission and its plans have grown. The Congressional America 250 Caucus reached 346 members, becoming the largest congressional caucus, Rios said.

She works closely with top Trump advisers — Vince Haley, director of the Domestic Policy Council; Brittany Baldwin, senior policy adviser at the America 250 task force; as well as Chris LaCavita and Meredith Rourke, senior Trump campaign advisers. In April, Rios joined Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., a commission member, in visiting a West Virginia elementary school to empower girls toward leadership.

“All the states are fully engaged state commissions, and I know that they’re working well with what the Trump folks want to do. I think some of the things are different, and so they’re kind of going their own way on some things,” Capito said in an interview. “There was a little in the beginning, sort of, ‘Where are we going to go?’ But I think that’s all sort of dissipated.”

But political feuds have still bubbled to the surface.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., wrote to Trump in July urging him to fire Rios, saying she “has a track record of extreme partisan bias against you and your administration.”

Trump also encouraged the executive director he appointed to the commission, former Fox News producer Ariel Abergel, to put the president’s stamp on events planned by America250. The executive director position at the commission is separate from Rios’ chairmanship but still holds decision-making power over its plans.

Abergel recommended that a Cabinet agency take charge of the student field trips, pushed to have Trump’s photo added to sponsorship logos and sought to downplay a group of “ambassadors” advising the commission, including historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and the former Democratic mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, according to published reports. He also reportedly tried to oust some citizen members of the commission to make room for more Trump loyalists.

Rios and her commission resisted those efforts, and Abergel resigned in September. Trump then appointed Jordan Wiggins, a former campaign aide to Vice President JD Vance, to serve as the commission’s new executive director, but Rios said Wiggins has not assumed the role.

Rios still insists the celebration has “never been about one person … it’s about one country.”

“Anything that is of significant engagement to the American public is going to be a Rorschach test,” she said. “People are going to take away what they’re going to want to take away. I’m sure they’re going to be people who choose to resist for the sake of resisting. There are going to be other folks who want to be all in and have the biggest celebration that we can offer.”

The commission has received nearly $50 million for its work since 2019 and is seeking another $100 million in appropriations this year, according to a report that Rios sent to the White House and Congress in January. The Republican reconciliation law enacted in July provided $150 million for the White House task force, but the commission has no control over that funding, Rios said.

The commission’s federal funding is being supplemented by corporate sponsorships, with companies like Coca-Cola and Walmart contributing millions of dollars to the effort, which will include a national advertising campaign to be kicked off around New Year’s, said Rios, who noted that she isn’t taking a salary for her work as chair.

When asked about Trump’s UFC event and other White House plans, she responded, “That is whatever the president wants it to be.”

The White House declined to comment on Monday, but spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said there could be some news about the task force later this week.

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