US embassies are turning their usual Fourth of July receptions into something closer to a global fundraising drive for a blockbuster 250th birthday party—and some diplomats are leaning hard on corporate guests to pay for it. In recent months, American missions in places like Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore have circulated "America 250" donation forms and pitches seeking large contributions from companies, far beyond the modest sums traditionally raised for July Fourth events, the New York Times reports.
In Japan, corporate backers including Toyota and SoftBank have helped the embassy assemble roughly $35 million for more than 70 planned events tied to the celebrations. A letter from US Ambassador George Glass told prospective donors that President Trump had instructed him to ensure Japan hosts the biggest celebration outside the United States. The most aggressive push described so far came at a Feb. 5 dinner at Singapore's luxury Capella hotel, where US Ambassador Anjani Sinha told a room of American and local executives, "I need your money," according to an audio recording obtained by the Times.
Sinha, a major donor to a Trump-aligned super PAC before becoming ambassador, said another embassy in the region had already raised tens of millions and urged Singapore-based firms to top that, telling them there were "better people here making more money." The dinner, sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, Philip Morris and the Milken Institute, was billed as a chance to partner on US semiquincentennial events such as a rodeo and an American music performance.
The scope and tone of the embassy campaigns have unsettled some career diplomats and business executives, who worry it blurs the line between public diplomacy and pay-to-play politics, the Times reports. "We certainly avoided in the past any hint that we might be treating people differently based on how much money they contributed," says former Ambassador Ted Osius, calling the current scale "aberrant" and potentially damaging to America's image. Osius, who was the US ambassador to Vietnam from 2014 to 2017, says there seems to be a "competitive environment between some of the ambassadors right now of who can raise the most."
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