The Trump administration says it plans to shut down Freedom 250, the quasi-private organization it used to take over the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations. But that doesn’t mean the president’s efforts to hijack the nation’s semiquincentennial have ended.

Trump is continuing to weaponize the anniversary as he combats what he claims are overly woke institutions. He’s still using the 250th to justify self-aggrandizing construction projects he is pushing in Washington. And, at least for the time being, the Freedom 250 fundraising apparatus remains in place, drawing scrutiny from congressional Democrats who are planning to ramp up their investigations into the Trump administration if they win control of Congress in November.

Freedom 250 is a limited liability company set up within the National Park Foundation, a nonprofit overseen by the Interior Department that raises private money for national parks. That complex arrangement makes the group’s operations, and its spending of federal money, opaque. According to USA Spending, a government website, Freedom 250 is funded via a grant to the National Park Foundation, to the tune of $86 million so far, that won’t expire until the end of 2028.

In addition, Democrats on the Natural Resources Committee noted in a July report that Event Strategies, Inc, or ESI—a private company with close ties to Trump’s campaign operations—still has a contract to organize festivities worth up to $100 million. According to the General Services Administration, that contract runs through 2030. This “could allow ESI to continue to host events and build projects in the name of the President’s self-aggrandizement until 2030,” Democrats wrote in their report. Event Strategies did not respond to inquiries.

Officials at Freedom 250 and the National Park Foundation say the Democrats needn’t worry. They expect Freedom 250 to dissolve in coming months. “Our intent to wind the Freedom 250 LLC down, and that wind down has begun,” said Josh deBerge, a spokesperson for the foundation.

Lawmakers have also questioned whether GOP operatives have used anniversary events to gather personal data from attendees to build email lists to benefit Republicans in the midterm elections. This month, House Democrats........

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