Trump kicks off America's 250th birthday with victory lap speech in Iowa

President Trump delivered a victory-lap speech Thursday night at the Iowa State Fair, extolling a streak of recent wins from his America First Agenda while kicking off the year-long buildup to the country’s 250th birthday celebration.

Mr. Trump flew into Des Moines to join his supporters hours after the One Big Beautiful Bill, his signature legislation, passed Congress a day before the self-imposed July 4 deadline.

House Speaker Mike Johnson succeeded in pushing the bill across the finish line on a 218-214 vote.

The president expressed his love for the state and reminisced about winning Iowa’s presidential vote three times.

“There could be no better birthday present for America than the phenomenal victory we achieved just hours ago when Congress passed the One Big, Beautiful Bill to make America win again,” Mr. Trump said, adding that the voters gave him a “historic mandate to cut taxes, raise, take home, pay, bring back jobs, stop the invasion.”

He said that “every major promise I made to the people of Iowa in 2024 became a promise kept.”

Mr. Trump listed other recent successes of his administration in the last several months including brokering peace deals between India and Pakistan, Kosovo and Serbia, and Rwanda and Congo.

The president also boasted about the recent U.S. military strike on Iran’s key nuclear facilities, which he said “obliterated” the sites.

“You cap it off with the hit, the perfect hit in Iran, where they were talking awfully badly, you know, ’death to America,’ ’death to Israel,’ they were talking awfully badly,” he said. “They’re not talking badly any more, to be honest with you. And we might even meet with them and see if they want to meet.”

Mr. Trump took inventory of the last two weeks and called it “incredible” with all the “victories” he has had, but said it is unlikely his efforts will earn a Nobel Peace Prize, for which he was recently nominated.

“Somebody else will get the Nobel Peace Prize for their writing about Donald Trump,” he said.

During his speech, the president announced the “Great American State Fair,” which he said would kick off in Iowa.

The celebrations will culminate in a celebration on the National Mall next year.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will lead the “Patriot Games,” a nationally televised athletic competition. He also said a UFC bout at the White House will be part of the celebrations.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said he is “dead serious” about those plans.

Additionally, Mr. Trump announced plans to celebrate the 250th anniversaries of the Marines and the Navy this fall.

On Friday, Mr. Trump and first lady Melania Trump will participate in Independence Day events at the White House, including a picnic with military families, including the pilots who were involved in the strike in Iran, in the afternoon and a fireworks celebration in the evening.

The Iowa rally is the first celebration by the America 250 Task Force, which is planning a full year of festivities that will continue through July 4, 2026.

“The White House is engaging and encouraging the entire federal government, state and local governments, the private sector, non-profit and educational institutions, and every citizen across this country to join in this historic celebration,” the White House said.

The Iowa event is among 56 celebrations that each state and territory plans to host throughout the next year “culminating in the most monumental celebration our country has ever known,” the planning committee said.

Mr. Trump last made his way to the Iowa State Fair in August 2023, months before Iowa’s 2024 Republican presidential caucuses, where it is first on the caucus calendar for the GOP.

Air Force One buzzed over the fairgrounds, where Mr. Trump attracted large crowds who watched his every action and cheered him on when he hoisted a pork chop on a stick.

Iowa’s state fair is a way for Iowans to display agriculture and the American heartland, sell deep-fried treats, show off life-size cows sculpted from butter, enjoy carnival rides, and watch farm animal shows.

Long seen as a swing state, Iowa has become solidly Republican in the last decade or so since Mr. Trump became the face of the party.