Our country is built on written documents — the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, to name the most important. So to celebrate America’s 250th birthday, my wife, Ann, hosted a special event at Planet Word, the immersive language museum she founded in Washington to promote literacy. The singer-composer Nolan Williams Jr. led a singalong featuring classic American songs, including, of course, Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.”
Despite 100-degree heat, a remarkably diverse crowd of 300 people packed the museum’s main hall, and young and old sang together with gusto. There was so much joy and camaraderie in the room — and so many leaving attendees saying to one another how much they wished the entire country could reflect that same harmony every day. So many people asked afterward, “Why aren’t we singing these songs together on the National Mall?”
Which leads — I am sorry to say — to a quite different variation on “This Land Is Your Land” heard on the National Mall later that evening. In my mind, it was the Trump variation, with lyrics that went, “This land is my land, this land is my land / From California to the New York island / From my cryptocurrency to the Qatari 747 / This land belongs to me and mine.”
One thing about President Trump: He is consistent. He never surprises you on the upside. He has never been remotely interested in being the president of all the people, only his base. He never tries to win by addition, only by division — only by us versus them.
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As my newsroom colleague Shawn McCreesh reported from the mall: “Mr. Trump used the nation’s birthday to scaremonger about Democrats four months before the midterms (he talked a lot again about ‘communism’) and demand that Congress pass an act that would make it harder to vote.” Shawn continued, “What was meant to be the centerpiece of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration was in some ways just another Trump rally.”
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This very same Fourth of July, two other newsroom colleagues of mine, Eric Lipton and David Yaffe-Bellany, reported that nearly “1 million people who bought President Trump’s memecoin have lost money through the end of June, according to a report by the cryptocurrency analytics firm Nansen. Their losses total $3.81 billion.” My colleagues pointed out that the calculation came after Trump signed a financial disclosure revealing that the same crypto bet dealt him a $636 million payout. In all, his business ventures brought him at least $2.2 billion in 2025.
This is a big story, and my gut tells me that Trump also smells that this could be a big story: of how badly he fleeced his own supporters!
Since the start of Trump’s second term, it’s been widely reported that he has been exploiting the presidency for financial gain, but the story needed a real number and real victims. Now it has both — $2.2 billion in total gains for Trump and at least $3.81 billion in losses for his investors. That’s a bumper sticker. Trump famously boasted that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and his supporters would still be with him. Will they also stick with him when he fleeces them?
And, have no doubt, he was targeting them, as The Times also reported: “Three days before his inauguration, Mr. Trump unveiled a second Trump-branded investment — the $Trump memecoin, a type of novelty currency with little practical value. ‘It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!’ Mr. Trump wrote on social media. ‘Join my very special Trump community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW!’ But that turned out to be bad advice.”
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Trump is surely terrified that the Democrats will win the House or the Senate or both and launch investigations into how much he has used his office, and exploited his own supporters, for grotesque personal gain.
Therefore, to my mind, the right themes for Democrats going into the midterms are two: If they win, they will expose how much Trump has been ripping off his own supporters; and if they win they will make bringing the country together a priority.
I believe the quest for national unity is the most underestimated political force in the country today. It is not an accident that CNN reported last month that “nearly half of Americans say they don’t consider themselves a part of either major political party, the highest level of partisan independence measured by CNN polling in more than a decade.”
I am sure that is true because I heard the best political analyst I know make the same point. His name is Barack Obama. Which brings me to a third variation of “This Land Is Your Land.” It was Obama’s speech at the opening ceremony of his presidential center in Chicago, which I attended. My favorite passage from Obama was this:
So, Democrats, you have your assignment. It’s to not let Trump bait you into blind rage and extreme ideas. He feeds off that. Just focus on how much he has been fleecing all of us while tearing us apart. And how much Democrats intend to pull the whole country together.
’Cause this land was made for you and me.
Despite 100-degree heat, a remarkably diverse crowd of 300 people packed the museum’s main hall, and young and old sang together with gusto. There was so much joy and camaraderie in the room — and so many leaving attendees saying to one another how much they wished the entire country could reflect that same harmony every day. So many people asked afterward, “Why aren’t we singing these songs together on the National Mall?”
Which leads — I am sorry to say — to a quite different variation on “This Land Is Your Land” heard on the National Mall later that evening. In my mind, it was the Trump variation, with lyrics that went, “This land is my land, this land is my land / From California to the New York island / From my cryptocurrency to the Qatari 747 / This land belongs to me and mine.”
One thing about President Trump: He is consistent. He never surprises you on the upside. He has never been remotely interested in being the president of all the people, only his base. He never tries to win by addition, only by division — only by us versus them.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
As my newsroom colleague Shawn McCreesh reported from the mall: “Mr. Trump used the nation’s birthday to scaremonger about Democrats four months before the midterms (he talked a lot again about ‘communism’) and demand that Congress pass an act that would make it harder to vote.” Shawn continued, “What was meant to be the centerpiece of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration was in some ways just another Trump rally.”
Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. Get it sent to your inbox.
This very same Fourth of July, two other newsroom colleagues of mine, Eric Lipton and David Yaffe-Bellany, reported that nearly “1 million people who bought President Trump’s memecoin have lost money through the end of June, according to a report by the cryptocurrency analytics firm Nansen. Their losses total $3.81 billion.” My colleagues pointed out that the calculation came after Trump signed a financial disclosure revealing that the same crypto bet dealt him a $636 million payout. In all, his business ventures brought him at least $2.2 billion in 2025.
This is a big story, and my gut tells me that Trump also smells that this could be a big story: of how badly he fleeced his own supporters!
Since the start of Trump’s second term, it’s been widely reported that he has been exploiting the presidency for financial gain, but the story needed a real number and real victims. Now it has both — $2.2 billion in total gains for Trump and at least $3.81 billion in losses for his investors. That’s a bumper sticker. Trump famously boasted that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and his supporters would still be with him. Will they also stick with him when he fleeces them?
And, have no doubt, he was targeting them, as The Times also reported: “Three days before his inauguration, Mr. Trump unveiled a second Trump-branded investment — the $Trump memecoin, a type of novelty currency with little practical value. ‘It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!’ Mr. Trump wrote on social media. ‘Join my very special Trump community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW!’ But that turned out to be bad advice.”
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Trump is surely terrified that the Democrats will win the House or the Senate or both and launch investigations into how much he has used his office, and exploited his own supporters, for grotesque personal gain.
Therefore, to my mind, the right themes for Democrats going into the midterms are two: If they win, they will expose how much Trump has been ripping off his own supporters; and if they win they will make bringing the country together a priority.
I believe the quest for national unity is the most underestimated political force in the country today. It is not an accident that CNN reported last month that “nearly half of Americans say they don’t consider themselves a part of either major political party, the highest level of partisan independence measured by CNN polling in more than a decade.”
I am sure that is true because I heard the best political analyst I know make the same point. His name is Barack Obama. Which brings me to a third variation of “This Land Is Your Land.” It was Obama’s speech at the opening ceremony of his presidential center in Chicago, which I attended. My favorite passage from Obama was this:
The fact is, though, Obama continued, “I do not believe that is the story of America that prevails in the end. … I remain convinced that the overwhelming majority of Americans … aren’t looking for perpetual anger and division. They are looking for fairness and common sense and mutual respect, that deep in our gut we want to find a way to turn toward each other again, not further away.”
So, Democrats, you have your assignment. It’s to not let Trump bait you into blind rage and extreme ideas. He feeds off that. Just focus on how much he has been fleecing all of us while tearing us apart. And how much Democrats intend to pull the whole country together.
’Cause this land was made for you and me.
