Overview
- New national surveys published Wednesday show about four in ten U.S. adults say they feel proud of the nation’s 250th anniversary and roughly three in ten say they feel excited, while roughly eight in ten say the Declaration’s signers would be disappointed with how the country turned out.
- The mood breaks sharply by party and age, with most Republicans and older Americans reporting pride or excitement and many Democrats and people under 30 saying they feel conflicted or indifferent.
- Public attention to the semiquincentennial is modest, with a Marquette Law School poll finding just 26% have read or heard a lot about the anniversary and Gallup-With Honor showing 44% plan private gatherings with friends or family.
- President Trump has planned events on the National Mall and elsewhere and a separate congressional America250 commission is organizing programming, and those parallel efforts have prompted scrutiny over permits, performers and use of public assets.
- Longer trends in polling show falling national pride and rising doubts about the country’s future, a backdrop that could deepen partisan splits over how the anniversary is framed and affect political messaging ahead of the midterms.