Trump kicks off a yearlong celebration of America's 250th anniversary in Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — President Donald Trump turned a heartland festival for the United States' upcoming 250th anniversary into a celebration of himself, basking in a crowd of supporters Thursday night shortly after Congress approved tax cut legislation that he championed.

On the eve of the July 4th holiday, Trump said “there could be no better birthday present for America than the phenomenal victory we achieved just hours ago, when Congress passed the one big beautiful bill to make America great again.”

The Republican president plans to sign the legislation Friday during a picnic at the White House, while stealth bombers and fighter jets that participated in recent airstrikes in Iran fly overhead, a symbolic synthesis of the overwhelming force that he’s deployed to reshape Washington and the country.

“We’ve saved our country,” he boasted after taking the stage, pumping his fists while singer Lee Greenwood belted out Trump’s campaign trail anthem “God Bless the USA.” In addition to tax breaks, the legislation boosts funding for deportations while cutting back on healthcare and food assistance for low income people.

The event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines was the opening act for a yearlong birthday party to mark two and a half centuries of American independence. The plans will culminate next summer with a massive fair on the National Mall in Washington featuring exhibits from every state.

Organizers see the coming year of festivities as a way to help unite a polarized nation and bridge political divides. But Trump left no doubt during his speech that he views patriotism as inseparable from his own agenda, saying Democrats who voted against his legislation “hate our country."

U.S. Ambassador Monica Crowley, Trump’s liaison to the organizing group, America250, said in an interview that the anniversary events are “something that I think that all Americans can come together to celebrate and honor our history as well as our present and our future.”

However, when she took the stage to introduce the president, she delivered an ode to Trump, describing him as the inheritor of the country’s original revolutionary spirit.

“I don’t know what more people expect or want from an American president,” Crowley said. “He is literally fulfilling the entire job description, and so much more.”

A few thousand spectators waited for Trump for hours in 90-plus degree Fahrenheit (32 degree Celsius) heat. The audience was awash in Trump paraphernalia, including “Make America Great Again” hats, shirts that said “Ultra MAGA” and a stuffed monkey with its own miniature Trump shirt.

During the speech, Trump heard what sounded like fireworks. The anniversary of his attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, was only ten days away.

“It’s only fireworks, I hope,” he said. “Famous last words.”

Unlike a year ago, Trump was speaking from behind thick bulletproof glass.

“You always have to think positive,” he said. “I didn’t like that sound either.”

The reminder of one of the darkest moments in recent political history did little to dampen Trump’s political euphoria. He boasted about the recent U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, the declining price of eggs, the lower number of migrants crossing the southern border with Mexico and his election victories.

“We got great marks in the first term, and this is going to blow it away," Trump said. He said he likes calling his wife Melania “first lady” because “it reminds me that I’m president.”

Trump has occasionally mused about the fortuitous timing of serving in the White House during the country's 250th anniversary, a chronological overlap that only became possible because he lost his initial bid for a second term — a defeat he's never accepted.

He promised during last year's campaign to create an epic series of festivities and convene a task force to coordinate with state and local governments. On Thursday night, he announced plans for the “Patriot Games," sports contests featuring high school athletes from across the country "to show off the best of American skill, sportsmanship and competitive spirit.”

Trump also suggesting hosting UFC matches at the White House.

A recent Gallup poll showed the widest partisan split in patriotism in over two decades, with only about a third of Democrats saying they are proud to be American, compared with about 9 in 10 Republicans.

About 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of Trump’s performance as president, according to a June AP-NORC poll, while about 6 in 10 disapprove.

The Trump administration’s own cost-cutting moves this year threaten to complicate the celebrations. Reduced funding led the National Endowment for the Humanities to send letters to state humanities councils across the country saying their federal grants had been terminated. Many of those councils had been working on programming to commemorate the 250th anniversary and had already dedicated some of their federal grants for events at libraries, schools and museums.

Gabrielle Lyon, executive director of Illinois Humanities and chair of the Illinois America 250 Commission, said the cuts already have curtailed some of the planned programs, including community readings of the Declaration of Independence.

“It is very hard to understand how we can protect and preserve people’s ability locally to make this mean something for them, and to celebrate what they want to celebrate, if you’re not funding the humanities councils,” Lyon said.

AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report. AP writers Gary Fields and Chris Megerian also contributed.

President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, Thursday, July 3, 2025, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, Thursday, July 3, 2025, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins speaks before President Donald Trump arrives at a rally, Thursday, July 3, 2025, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, speaks before President Donald Trump arrives at a rally, Thursday, July 3, 2025, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

People listen before President Donald Trump arrives at a rally, Thursday, July 3, 2025, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Des Moines International Airport, Thursday, July 3, 2025, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, center left, holds up her phone to snap a picture with Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., center right, as Republicans in the House celebrate final passage of President Donald Trump's signature bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, July 3, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

A local resident listen to a speech during an Iowa Democratic Party rally, Thursday, July 3, 2025, in Windsor Heights, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

BERLIN (AP) — The German government has sharply rejected accusations by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claiming that it has been sidelining patient autonomy, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The statements made by the US Secretary of Health are completely unfounded, factually incorrect, and must be rejected,” German Health Minister Nina Warken said in a statement late Saturday.

Kennedy said in a video post earlier on Saturday that he had sent the German minister a letter based on reports coming out of Germany that the government was “limiting people’s abilities to act on their own convictions when they face medical decisions.”

The American health secretary said that “I've learned that more than a thousand German physicians and thousands of their patients now face prosecution and punishment for issuing exemptions from wearing masks or getting COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic."

Warken rejected Kennedy’s claims, saying that “during the coronavirus pandemic, there was never any obligation on the medical profession to administer COVID-19 vaccinations. Anyone who did not want to offer vaccinations for medical, ethical, or personal reasons was not liable to prosecution, nor did they have to fear sanctions.”

Kennedy did not give provide specific examples or say which reports he was referring to but added that “in my letter, I explained that Germany is targeting physicians who put their patients first and punishing citizens for making their own medical choices.”

He concluded that "the German government is now violating the sacred patient physician relationship, replacing it is a dangerous system that makes physicians enforcers of state policies.”

Kennedy said that in his letter he made clear that “Germany has the opportunity and the responsibility to correct this trajectory, to restore medical autonomy, to end politically motivated prosecutions.”

Warken pointed out that there were no professional bans or fines for not getting vaccinated.

“Criminal prosecution was only pursued in cases of fraud and document forgery, such as the issuance of false vaccination certificates or fake mask certificates," the minister said.

She also clarified that in general in Germany “patients are also free to decide which therapy they wish to undergo.”

Former German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who was in charge during the pandemic, also replied, addressing Kennedy directly on X saying that he “should take care of health problems in his own country. Short life expectancy, extreme costs, tens of thousands of drug deaths and murder victims."

“In Germany, doctors are not punished by the government for issuing false medical certificates. In our country, the courts are independent,” Lauterbach wrote.

While a majority of Germans were eager to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus during the pandemic, there were also protests by a small minority of vaccine skeptics in Germany which were sometimes supported by far-right movements.

FILE - Robert Kennedy Jr., center, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department, walks between meetings with senators on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)