Jun 5, 2026
Fountains, fireworks, a White House walkway and the relocation of a statue honoring a slave-owning Founding Father — that’s what $90 million diverted from the country’s national parks will help buy the Trump administration ahead of America’s 250th birthday.
The Washington Post reported the reallocation of national park entry fee funds on Wednesday following review of internal National Park Service documents.
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“That is not how it was designed to work,” Ed Stierli, a senior director with the advocacy group National Parks Conservation Association told the outlet. “It shouldn’t just be all at one park at the expense of the entire national park system.”
The diversion of money away from parks that depend on it for upkeep comes as the Department of the Interior (DOI) itself declares the need for $35.4 billion to cover “priority deferred maintenance and repair” infrastructure projects at national parks as well as wildlife refuges and other areas, which the Post also noted.
They added that national parks outside of Washington only received $27 million total to share for 2026 costs, and were also warned that they won’t have access to a federal contingency fund made up of 20% of the fees the parks collect each year.
What are the National Parks funds being spent on?
The Post listed various 250th anniversary projects in Washington that will receive diverted national parks funds, including $76 million for various fountain repairs (such as the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool) and $1.6 million for fireworks.
The cost of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on its own has jumped from President Trump’s original estimate of $1.8 million to more than $13 million.
The New York Times reported that the Trump administration awarded a no-bid contract to the company fixing the Reflecting Pool, “adding at least $850,000 to what a more typical contract would have cost,” and that the company still wasn’t able to repair leaks in the structure.
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John Hart, of the spending watchdog group Open the Books, slammed the no-bid contract and excessive spending, telling the Times that “when you rely on sole source contracting, it opens the door to extraordinary waste.” He added that, “We’ve known that this is going to be America’s 250th anniversary for 250 years. It’s not like we didn’t have time to plan.”
The $1.6 million fireworks, meanwhile, cost about six-times as much as the regular Fourth of July display, which usually runs around $270,000.
The Post added that the administration is spending $716,000 on a base for the relocated statue of Caesar Rodney in Washington. It’s believed that Rodney, a Founding Father, enslaved up to 200 people, a fact that led to the statue’s removal from its Delaware home after protests following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
A White House “west colonnade walkway” repair also reportedly cost $689,232.
The Post said that Trump administration spokespeople defended the spending, while a DOI spokesperson claimed that the administration is seeking other ways to pay for needed national parks maintenance.
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The outlet’s report also included expenditures covered by private donations, like the “East Wing Modernization” that includes Trump’s ballroom, priced at $300 million, though Republicans attempted to procure $1 billion in taxpayer funds to upgrade it. The cost of a White House helipad is reportedly covered by another $5 million in donations.
Meanwhile, the Washington-based NOTUS news outlet, created by Robert Allbritton (co-founder of Politico) says that the Trump administration directed almost $70 million in taxpayer funds to its Freedom 250 anniversary commission instead of the bi-partisan, Congressionally-created America250 committee, which stated that it only received $25 million of a promised $100 million.
Quick quiz
How much more did the 250th anniversary fireworks cost compared to regular July 4th displays?
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Freedom 250 concert falls apart
The ballooning costs of preparing the nation’s capital ahead of the 250th anniversary come as a planned Freedom 250 concert publicly falls apart. Almost all of the advertised concert acts pulled out in recent days, including Poison frontman Bret Michaels, C+C Music Factory, the Commodores, Martina McBride, Milli Vanilli, Morris Day & The Time and Young MC.
Michaels noted that the event was originally presented to his team “as a celebration of our country through music” but “evolved into something much more divisive.”
Trump now says that he wants to cancel the concert that already lost most of its artists and instead turn the event into a MAGA rally. A planned UFC event on the White House lawn is also still a go, with the MMA company, or its parent, TKO, covering the $60 million cost.
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Mike Crisolago is a Sr. Staff Reporter at Moneywise with nearly 20 years of experience working as a journalist, editor, content strategist and podcast host. He specializes in personal finance writing related to the 50-plus demographic and retirement, as well as politics and lifestyle content.
