There’s no question that President Donald Trump loves America and big celebrations. His presidential campaign rallies were famously big, fun affairs that attracted crowds wherever they were held. Trump himself relished the limelight, offering long speeches before a ginned-up audience. Rallies fuel him.

Trump knows how to put on a good show. And with America’s 250th anniversary happening this year, there may be no better man to have in the White House for the occasion than Trump.

Indeed, Trump has devoted considerable energy to cleaning up and preparing the nation’s capital for the celebration, as a week’s worth of events is planned for the semiquincentennial.

Over this past weekend, for his birthday, Trump held the first-ever Ultimate Fighting Championship on the White House South Lawn. And it was quite the event, complete with an impressive flyover by a joint squadron of the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds. Given that it was Trump’s birthday celebration, he can be given a pass on the celebration feeling a lot like a Trump rally.

However, when it comes to celebrating our nation’s birthday, pains should be taken to avoid it looking and feeling like a political rally. Both Democrats and Republicans should welcome the opportunity to celebrate our nation without the specter of it becoming a partisan affair.

This is why Trump’s recent post on Truth Social that the July 4th celebration on the National Mall would be “the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all, a ‘TRIBUTE TO AMERICA,’” has predictably, rubbed some people the wrong way. He added, “There will be incredible Flyovers and Airshows featuring our Top Military Pilots and Equipment, and I will deliver keynote remarks that you will not want to miss.”

Of course, this was a Trump message to his base. But everyone can read it, raising the question, is this a celebration of America or Trump?

Unfortunately, Democrats who have been “progressing” headlong to the far left for years now, well before Trump came into office, aren’t helping matters. Too many of them talk of patriotism as at best a necessary evil. Generally speaking, Democrats don’t love America. There’s a huge patriotism gap between the parties.

Indeed, it’s clear that Trump’s unabashed embrace of patriotism is inspiring to his base, who see Him as the man who not only exposed the rot in Washington and our nation’s elite institutions but has also worked hard to confront it and (literally) clean up the swamp.

But divisiveness does not breed unity. The biggest challenge for any politician is to bridge natural partisan divides and get all citizens to see each other and their nation as bigger and more significant than the policy issues on which they disagree.

Some presidents have been better at it than others. Ronald Reagan was one of the best at doing so. He was fiercely and unapologetically patriotic, but also winsome in how he expressed it broadly to all Americans.

Unfortunately, Trump’s my-way-or-the-highway approach, which has often served the Republican Party well in developing a strong backbone for political fights, has proven less effective at appealing to Americans overall.

This is by no means entirely Trump’s fault. With much of the mainstream media negatively reporting (often falsely) on Trump, and Democrat politicians continuously disingenuously equating Trump and his MAGA supporters to fascists and Nazis, it’s no wonder so many people have a negative view of him.

There’s no doubt that Trump is a norm-shattering presence when it comes to the Washington establishment, which has long derided much of the country as backward rubes. This factor alone has endeared Trump to many of these Americans, as has his unapologetically America First platform.

That said, Trump is not America; the nation is much bigger than him, and he would do well to avoid the temptation to equate his name and brand with America. It’s easy to see it on the other foot. When Barack Obama was in office, he regularly derided half the country that did not agree with him politically as being “on the wrong side of history.” Not only was Obama’s claim insulting, belittling, and factually inaccurate, but it was deeply divisive.

In fact, in many ways, it’s because of Obama’s divisiveness that Americans chose Trump. The concern now is whether Trump is making a similar error by equating Americanism with himself and his own agenda.

It’s good for Americans to be proud of their country and to loudly celebrate this great nation, established on Judeo-Christian values and principles. We should thank God for preserving her. But we should also be wary of elevating our political disagreements over and above our loyalty and love for our nation.