Ram's New America250 Special Editions Are Nonpartisan And Apolitical, And Don't You Dare Suggest They Aren't
It's almost April, the weather is warming up, spring is in the air, and once again, it's special edition time in Auburn Hills. This time around, Ram's getting patriotic with a series of America250 Special Editions which, of course, come in either red, white, or blue. Ram will let you add the package to the 1500 pickup's Big Horn, Laramie or Rebel trims, and while you can only get a 3.6-liter V6 withe the Big Horn, if you spring for the Laramie or Rebel, you have the option of a twin-turbocharged, 3.0-liter inline-six or a naturally aspirated 5.7-liter V8. Pricing including destination starts at $61,415 for the Big Horn, $70,365 for the Laramie, and $72,830 for the Rebel, and orders are now open.
As for the package itself, you get body-color grille surrounds, a lot of black trim, an American flag on the hood that's doesn't include a thin blue line (yet), some America250 emblems, more American flags around back, scuff plates that read, "America Made Us," and a custom leather key tag. Upholstery changes based on the trim you start with, adding Denim Soul blue fabric to the Big Horn, while the other two get leather seats with "perforated Blue Crust inserts and Graphite Metallic-accented bolsters." Compared to a comparable non-special-edition Ram 1500, adding the America250 Package adds $2,495, unless you want the Rebel, in which case it's only $1,995."
If you're thinking, "Wait, America250? Isn't that a Trump-Republican thing?", the first sentence of Ram's press release wants you to know that's not the case. "Today, Ram debuts three new special editions of the Ram 1500 as part of Stellantis's official partnership with America250, the national nonpartisan organization that aims to engage every American in celebrating and commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States of America." Odds are, you're thinking of Freedom 250, a separate organization that Trump created in 2025. The problem is, while Obama intended America250 to be nonpartisan, it's been hijacked, too.
Two different organizations
We've known our 250th anniversary was coming for a while, so Congress actually created the United States Semiquincentennial Commission back in 2016, and Obama signed off on it. In 2019, the commission launched the America250 Foundation, and now both operate under the America250 banner. When Trump got back into office, though, he decided he needed his own party planning committee. On January 29, 2025, Trump signed an executive order creating the White House Task Force on Celebrating America's 250th Birthday, also known as Task Force 250, which is funded by an organization called Freedom 250.
Sure, it's inefficient to have two organizations that do the job of one, but why Trump took issue with an intentionally nonpartisan committee created while Obama was president, no one could possibly say. It's just a total mystery, you know? Trump wasn't happy to leave America250 alone to do its nonpartisan thing, either. His picks for the committee have been almost exclusively partisan Republican operatives and Fox News hosts, and they've made the committee far more political.
For example, America250 partnered with a cryptocurrency event that Eric Trump and Don Jr. headlined, has a partnership with the far-right propaganda organization PragerU, the organization allows Trump to use America250 branding at political rallies, and $10 million from America250's budget was used to fund Freedom 250's so-called "Freedom Trucks." It's gotten so partisan since Trump returned to office every single Democrat on the committee submitted a complaint that included the line, "Unfortunately, recent America250 funded and branded events have been partisan and have not served America250's purpose and mission of uniting us as a nation." Seems bad!
Not that you'd know any of that based on Ram's press release, and that's probably by design. Ram boss Tim Kuniskis would probably prefer it if you ignore just how MAGA America250 has become, saying in a statement, "For 250 years, this country has met every challenge head on with the flag flying high. The Ram 1500 America250 special editions honor America with that same passion and patriotism. They're unapologetically tough and unmistakably American because nothing stops America and nothing stops Ram."