The country’s 250th birthday was always going to bring out strong opinions. Few were as personal, or as raw, as the ones Chuck Todd put on record this Saturday.
The former Meet the Press host used The Chuck ToddCast on Saturday to deliver what can only be described as a deeply personal reckoning with what America’s semiquincentennial has become under Donald Trump, and it was not the kind of episode you put on while folding laundry. This was a journalist who has spent 30 years covering Washington telling his audience, without any pretense, that he feels genuinely let down by the man currently running the country.
He started with the anniversary itself.
“Trump’s doing all of us a favor by selfishly trying to steal this anniversary from us,” Todd said. “We now see who he really is. So no, it’s not the celebration we deserve. It’s not the one we could have had. But we get a mirror, and the mirror is telling us something.”
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He went on to argue that the country has always been larger than whoever occupies the Oval Office, adding: “The country is a lot bigger than Donald Trump. It is bigger than any president and it’s obviously bigger than any political party. And there’s no one definition of patriotism. But it still needs leaders who understand that.”
The weekend around him was doing very little to help his case for optimism.
Trump spent America’s 250th birthday at Mount Rushmore, warning that communism now poses a greater threat to the country than World War II or 9/11, before pivoting to midterm election strategy with the granite faces of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt watching from above. Philadelphia canceled its parade due to the dangerous heat. Washington temporarily shut down its National Mall celebrations.
An April AP-NORC survey found only about 4 in 10 Americans felt “proud” about the 250th anniversary, with roughly 3 in 10 choosing “excited.” Not exactly the emotional turnout a milestone birthday calls for.
Todd felt the full weight of all of it, and he made sure his listeners felt it too.
“For some people the central text in their lives is religious and I respect that,” he said. “For me the constitution has always carried that kind of weight. So that’s why I’m so angry and feel betrayed. I do. I feel betrayed as an American by him on this.”
He described the Constitution not as a perfect document but as something more valuable than perfection, saying it “gives us a way to keep going. It gives us structure for disagreement. It gives us a method for repair. It gives us the possibility of becoming better without pretending we were always good.”
He closed with a verdict that managed to hold frustration and stubborn hope in the same breath. “This is why I’m so pissed off,” Todd said. “Not because I love the country less, but because I love the idea of America enough to resent seeing it cheapened by this man. America deserved better at 250. Someday, I believe it will get better, but it’s in your hands.”
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
