TLDR
Ali Velshi used his MS NOW platform to say he feels “deep unease” about America’s 250th birthday, even as a Trump-fronted Freedom 250 fair leans hard into patriotic celebration.
On his weekend show, Ali Velshi did not open with fireworks or flags. He opened with a black-and-white photograph of a Ku Klux Klan march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, taken in 1926, the same year the United States marked its 150th anniversary.
Velshi used that image as a warning about how national birthdays are remembered. He told viewers that anniversaries can distort the story of a country, arguing that they often celebrate progress while pushing unresolved injustice to the edges of the frame.
“Anniversaries are imperfect records of the thing which is being celebrated,” he said, adding that in America’s case they often “gloss over the racial dynamics underlying much of America’s history and politics.”
The veteran correspondent, who was born in Kenya, raised in Canada, and became a U.S. citizen less than 11 years ago, stressed that he is speaking as someone who chose America. Yet he described the country’s “original founding sin of slavery” as unfinished business that shadows the coming 250th.
On air, Velshi said he feels “a deep unease about the celebrations” he is invited to join, calling the United States a “so-called democracy” in light of what he framed as ongoing attempts to dilute political power for Black Americans and to roll back civil rights.
He pointed viewers to Louisiana, where Republicans approved a congressional map that removed one of the state’s two majority-Black districts, following a recent Supreme Court decision that struck down an earlier map for overemphasizing Black representation. Velshi argued that similar maps across several states are designed to weaken Black voting strength.
“Women and Black Americans have seen their rights taken away,” he said, contending that the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and aggressive gerrymandering amount to racism in practice, even as the nation prepares for a milestone celebration.
While Velshi leans into discomfort, the official birthday machine is moving ahead at full volume. Organizers of “The Great American State Fair” say Donald Trump will personally kick off the spectacle on June 24 as part of the broader Freedom 250 effort to spotlight the nation’s semiquincentennial.
The lineup around Trump has become its own test of brand and values. Bret Michaels of Poison and country star Martina McBride dropped out after partisan backlash. Other acts, including Flo Rida, Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli, and Vanilla Ice, are still set to perform. A Freedom 250 spokesperson insisted the fair will be “inherently nonpolitical.”
That claim is at odds with Velshi’s broadcast. The host acknowledged that America’s ideals are, in his words, “noble and should be celebrated,” yet he invited viewers to sit with mixed emotions about a country he says has never fully reckoned with its racist past.
“If you have conflicting feelings about America’s upcoming anniversary,” he told his audience, “you’re not alone. At least I am with you on this.”
For Velshi, the reputational risk is clear. Critics can frame this as unpatriotic at a moment when media figures are expected to pick a side. Supporters may see it as a rare attempt, from a high-profile news seat, to honor the flag without forgetting who has been left outside the frame.
For Trump and the Freedom 250 planners, the stakes are different. A flag-wrapped fair backed by a former president offers marquee exposure, but it also ties artists, sponsors, and attendees to a fiercely debated vision of what the 250th should represent.
Between a cable host urging reflection and a former president promising spectacle, America’s next big birthday is already about more than fireworks. It is a live question of whose story, and whose discomfort, will be part of the party.
Do Velshi’s conflicted feelings about America’s 250th echo your own, or do you see milestone celebrations as a moment to set politics aside and simply enjoy the show?
