Mehdi Hassan

Today, Donald Trump's big, beautiful distraction.

Happy birthday, America.

More importantly, perhaps, happy birthday, Mr President.

This weekend kicks off an extravaganza of celebrations for the nation, marking its 250 years of independence from Britain.

And for Donald Trump, marking 80 years of being, well, him.

Presidents gone by would have used a milestone anniversary to promote national unity.

Trump is organising a cage fight.

He's a deeply unpopular president.

He's one of the most unpopular presidents in modern American history at this point in his presidency, if not the most unpopular president.

And he is nakedly, brazenly, unashamedly trying to hijack these celebrations.

The president is adamant every decent, flag-waving American will enjoy the festivities or, at the very least, be talking about the party.

rather than what he's actually brought to it.

There's a very serious assault on the Constitution, on liberal democracy, on the idea of three co-equal branches of government.

And we lose track of that with the UFC and the gold and the ballroom.

But this is actually a very, very dangerous moment for American democracy at 250 years.

From The Guardian, I'm Nosheen Iqbal.

Today in Focus, party in the USA.

But how much is there to celebrate?

Mehdi Hassan, welcome back to Today in Focus.

It is a big week for the US and for Washington DC, you know, the epicentre of the start of the country's 250th birthday celebrations, which start this weekend and keep going, I think, until July the 4th, until Independence Day.