'This Week' Transcript 7-5-26: A Special Look at America’s 250th Anniversary & Interior Secretary Doug Burgum

A rush transcript of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" airing on Sunday, July 5, 2026 on ABC News is below. This copy may not be in its final form, may be updated and may contain minor transcription errors. For previous show transcripts, visit the "This Week" transcript archive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: “THIS WEEK” with George Stephanopoulos starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, “THIS WEEK” ANCHOR: Stunning disclosure.

REPORTER: To critics who say you’re profiting off the presidency. Mr. President.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, you know why I'm profiting, because the stock market’s going up.

STEPHANOPOULOS: President Trump reveals more than two billion dollars of income the first year of his second term.

TRUMP: I don’t do anything having to do with my business. My kids run it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump is enriching himself at the expense of the American people.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Much of the money from some industries Trump regulates. A move unparalleled in the American presidency.

Plus.

TRUMP: We had something that gives back tremendous power to the president of the United States.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The Supreme Court expands presidential power.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is part of a pattern of empowering the executive branch at the expense of working people.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Our roundtable analyzes the fallout.

And as Trump’s controversial renovations sweep across the nation’s capital, we’re joined by the cabinet secretary overseeing the effort, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

All this as Americans celebrate a big birthday. Special coverage from our “THIS WEEK” team for America 250.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: From ABC Nnews it’s “THIS WEEK.” Here now, George Stephanopoulos.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning and welcome to “THIS WEEK.”

It has been a weekend of celebration and storms as Americans honor our country’s 250th birthday. The fireworks on the National Mall started just under the midnight wire, delayed by lightning strikes and a speech from President Trump that was less a commemoration of American history than a reflection of our polarized American politics.

The Declaration of Independence signed 250 years ago this week broke America free of rule by a British monarch. The Constitution that followed was designed to ensure that our country would not be governed by a monarch. The president would be constrained by the courts and Congress, ethical norms and elections every four years.

Two hundred and fifty years later, that system is under stress, tested by a president determined to wield power and buck norms in a way his predecessors did not. Perhaps most brazenly, this week, President Trump’s financial disclosure forms revealed that he collected more than $2 billion in revenues during the first year of his second term from investments in some industries he regulates, fueled in part by payments from foreign powers and a steady steam of -- stream of stock trading, including stakes in companies he promotes.

The president and his team insists this is not a conflict of interest. Democratic critics and many ethical experts disagree. One thing is certain, no other American president has ever acted this way or amassed money like this while holding the supreme office of public trust.

Jay O’Brien starts us off.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAY O'BRIEN, CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This week, the money Donald Trump has made since returning to the White House coming into clearer focus, staggering profits unprecedented for an American president. New, mandatory financial disclosure forms, released by the Office of Government Ethics, show Trump reported making at least $2.2 billion last year, triple what he earned in 2024, before the start of his second term.

MEGAN GORMAN, TAX ATTORNEY & AUTHOR, 'ALL THE PRESIDENTS; MONEY': What we’ve not seen is someone who is proactively growing their wealth while president.

O’BRIEN (voice over): Money making on an historic scale, says Megan Gorman, who chronicled presidential wealth in her book “All the President’s Money.”

O’BRIEN: Have you ever seen a president make money on this scale while in the White House?

GORMAN: I’ve never seen a situation where someone has been proactive like this.

O’BRIEN (voice over): Trump pointing to the stock market to explain his gains.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don’t get involved in my personal. We have funds that run my money.

REPORTER: To critics who say you’re profiting off the presidency. Mr. President.

TRUMP: Well, you know why I’m profiting? Because the stock market’s going up. Everybody’s profiting.

O’BRIEN (voice over): But the more than 900 pages show a Trump family business empire that’s expanded alongside the president’s time in office, extending from real estate holdings, to merchandise, to the biggest recent profit driver, cryptocurrency. Trump raking in upwards of $1.4 billion from crypto ventures alone last year. According to the documents, more than 630 million in profits came via the president’s meme coin, the sales of which generate revenue for Trump and his family, even as the value of the coin itself has plummeted from a high of $74, just before Trump was inaugurated, to trading under $2 today. An analysis found that nearly a million people who have invested in Trump’s meme coin lost a combined $3.8 billion.

TIM MASSAD, HARBARD KENNEDY SCHOOL FELLOW & FORMER CFTC CHAIR: Investors who bought the coin, many of them have suffered losses. Think of it like a baseball card. I

think a lot of people bought it who may simply like the present, wanted to support the president. I think there are others who bought it to try to buy influence.

O'BRIEN (voice over): The other big dollar crypto profits coming from World Liberty Financial, a firm founded by Trump’s family and that of his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, which the disclosures show earned Trump well north of $500 million last year. World Liberty Financial has brokered a series of controversial overseas deals, including accepting a half a billion dollar investment just days before Trump’s second inauguration from Shaykh Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who heads the United Arab Emirates’ state investment fund and serves as national security advisor. Months later, the Trump administration approved something the Sheikh and others in the UAE had long coveted, the sale of hundreds of thousands of cutting-edge American artificial intelligence chips. A spokesman for World Liberty Financial later telling ABC News, quote, “any claim that this deal had anything to do with the administration’s actions on chips is 100 percent false.

But through that deal, in a flurry of branded real estate projects, Trump made roughly $300 million from the Middle East alone according to the disclosures, more than any other region in the world. And the president’s crypto profits coming as the industry itself has teetered. Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, losing over half of its value since last October.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We’re going to be the undisputed crypto capital and bitcoin superpower of the world.

O’BRIEN (voice over): At the same time, his family crypto business is flourished, Trump, who once said bitcoin, quote, “seems like a scam,” now promising to be the most crypto friendly president in history, rolling back enforcement of the industry, something crypto advocates argued was necessary to prevent overregulation.

O’BRIEN: As someone who was intimately involved in this kind of enforcement, what do you make of a president personally profiting off of an industry that he also has his administration regulating?

MASSAD: I think it’s absolutely reprehensible. We’ve never seen a president do anything like this, to my knowledge.

O’BRIEN (voice over): In a statement, White House Spokesperson Anna Kelly saying, “neither the president, nor his family, has ever engaged or will ever engage in conflicts of interest.” And the White House repeatedly insisting the president only acts in the best interest of the American people, and pointing out that President Trump’s assets are in a trust, but not a traditional blind trust run by a third party. Instead, one managed by his children.

TRUMP: Well, I don’t do anything having to do with my business. My kids run it. My son, Eric, handles it. I don’t talk to him about things such as this.

O’BRIEN (voice over): Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., have invested in a flurry of ventures that could also have business before their father’s administration, from military drones, to Donald Trump Jr.’s investment in a company seeking to sell guns through the mail, to mining. Both of Trump’s sons have repeatedly disputed their father is involved in any of their business dealings. Donald Trump Jr. saying this at a summit in Saudi Arabia last year.

DONALD TRUMP JR., TRUMP ORGANIZATION EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT: We understand we’re outside of government, obviously, but over the last ten years we’ve been embroiled in it. We’ve been in that fight. We understand what the administration wants to do because we helped craft some of that messaging. So, we can be on the outside but still have that understanding of what they plan to do. And that’s logical.

O’BRIEN (voice over): The new financial disclosures also shedding light on the stock trades made by the president’s financial advisors on his behalf. More than 21,000 last year, earning Trump a stake in some 1,600 companies, many of which are directly involved in deals tied to the administration.

On April 8th of last year, over 300 trades of various securities made on Trump’s behalf, just a day before he announced a surprise pause on the sweeping tariffs he had unveiled a week earlier. Trump has said he’s not directly involved in trades made on his behalf. All of the documents made public just as the president took his new Air Force One for its inaugural flight this week, a $400 million gift from Qatar, which some legal experts and Democrats charge could violate the Constitution’s prohibition on federal officials taking gifts from foreign countries.

White House staffers posting pictures inside, showing off the plane’s large rooms. To serve as the president’s personal aircraft, the jet also retrofitted by the Pentagon, estimated to cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

TRUMP: It will cost very little relative to what it would cost if we did it a different way.

O’BRIEN (voice over): And while Trump has called the plane a gift for the country, the jet is subject to a highly unusual arrangement that will transfer its ownership to Trump’s presidential library, not to the next commander in chief, when he leaves office.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O’BRIEN (on camera): And, George, while the president and vice president aren’t subject to the same ethics laws as other members of the administration or even members of Congress, Democrats are promising that if they take back the House come November, they’ll use the power of the legislative branch to investigate President Trump’s family business dealings and hold him accountable if necessary.

George.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC “THIS WEEK” ANCHOR: Jay O’Brien, thanks.

Now to the Supreme Court. The justices wrapped this week ending a term which greatly expanded presidential power despite a few high-profile losses for President Trump. Rachel Scott has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RACHEL SCOTT, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The nation's high court wrapping up its term, defined by several landmark decisions that increased the power of the presidency.

SARAH ISGUR, EDITOR AT SCOTUSBLOG & ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR:  Once again, this Supreme Court term was about executive power, about what the role of the president is versus the role of Congress.

SCOTT (voice-over):  In a remarkable expansion of executive powers, the court ruling Monday 6-3 that President Trump can fire officials from independent regulatory agencies for any reason or no reason at all.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:  It gives a president the right to do what the president should have the right to do.

SCOTT (voice-over):  The court's conservatives rolling back almost a century of legal precedent, giving the president direct control over the leadership of more than two dozen agencies, including some created by Congress to serve as bipartisan government watchdogs.

Chief Justice John Roberts writing, “The president may remove his subordinates at will,” meaning Democratic members of key commissions can be targeted for removal by President Trump.

Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter was one of them.

REBECCA SLAUGHTER, FORMER FTC COMMISSIONER:  It is a massive transfer of power to the executive branch, really not from independent agencies, but from Congress, and Congress's ability to structure the institutions of government to provide transparency and accountability.

SCOTT (voice-over):  In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, accusing her conservative colleagues of distorting “the structure of government to fit the majority's theory of unitary total executive control.” Adding, “The result is a president who emerges with far greater power than ever before. It is a power, however, that neither the people nor Congress nor the Constitution bestowed upon him.”

But the justices did carve out an exception in the case of the Federal Reserve, preventing President Trump from firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook for now, citing the importance of the bank's independence.

SLAUGHTER:  I have a really hard time reconciling the decision in my case and the decision in Lisa Cook's case. The Constitution does not have a special asterisk or special section for banks. So I don't really understand how the court could say there is a separate set of rules for Wall Street than there are for Main Street.

SCOTT (voice-over):  President Trump telling Breitbart News the Slaughter decision made up for the court rejecting his effort to end birthright citizenship.

The court on Tuesday reaffirming that babies born on American soil are American citizens, dealing a major blow to the president who had tried to reinterpret the 14th Amendment by executive order.

ISGUR:  I don't think any serious legal scholar thought the president was going to win that case.

SCOTT (voice-over):  Earlier this year, the court also rejecting Trump's unprecedented assertion of power to tariff any country at any level without congressional approval.

ISGUR:  The tariffs decision was probably the most important case we've seen from the Supreme Court in a quarter century, reaffirming that presidents cannot run the government through executive order and cannot make major policy and legislative changes without Congress passing a law first.

SCOTT (voice-over):  And on Tuesday, in another setback for Trump, the court ruling against Republican efforts to restrict mail-in voting, upholding a Mississippi law that says ballots postmarked by election day, but received up to five days later, can still be counted.

TRUMP:  I think it was very detrimental to honest elections, but it is what it is.

SCOTT (voice-over):  After granting sweeping presidential immunity two years ago, the conservative majority bolstering President Trump's authority to crack down on immigration in a series of decisions, including ending deportation protections for hundreds of thousands and allowing border agents to turn away asylum seekers.

And ahead of the midterm elections, the court backed (VIDEO GAP) and significantly weakening the Landmark Voting Rights Act.

ISGUR:  Probably the case with the biggest impact on the midterm elections will be the campaign finance case, which will now allow political parties to coordinate with their candidates.

SCOTT (voice-over):  The court's conservative supermajority likely reshaping the presidency and the role of Congress for years to come.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANOPOULOS:  Thanks, Rachel, for that.

Let's bring in the roundtable. We are joined by our regulars, Chris Christie and Donna Brazile, Republican strategist Doug Heye, and “The New York Times'” Maggie Haberman, co-author of the new book, “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump”. You see it right there.

And, Maggie, let me begin with you.

You saw we went through the president's financial disclosure forms this week, more than $2.2 billion in income. He's remarkably open and unapologetic about it, especially in an interview with you for the book.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, NEW YORK TIMES WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT & CO-AUTHOR, “REGIME CHANGE”:  He actually made a comment to my colleagues earlier this year, which was that he had prohibited his sons from doing new deals or business -- which wasn't quite true -- in his first term, and that he found out that nobody cared, which is also not true, and that he's allowed to do it.

That part is true. There are no restrictions on what he's doing now. He is very aware, George, and this is sort of the part of the premise of what we're writing about in this book, is he is very aware that he is coming back with very few constraints on his power.

Congress is basically acting like supplicants. Republican House members. There are no ethics constrictions on the president the same way there are on other appointees throughout the government. And there is this sense throughout the Trump family that they were persecuted, that they gave up things in order for him to be, you know, in office and to serve and that this is their time. It’s like a reparations phase, for lack of a better way of putting it.

But, to your point, we have never seen anything on this scale. You said that earlier. And he is making money on something that he regulates and that his own investors lost money on. And so, I don’t know at what point that starts to become problematic for him politically. It certainly isn’t personal.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC “THIS WEEK” ANCHOR: That’s going to be the question. Should the president be caring about this?

CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR & ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I mean, look, should a president be caring about this? Yes. Will this president care about it? Absolutely not.

I think Maggie -- I would take it to the next level of what Maggie said. He and his family believe they are entitled to this. This is an entitlement to them. They believe, when they came back and won this election the second time, that that gave them license. That the American people gave them license to essentially go and take whatever they could take over this period of time.

And, quite frankly, you know, when you look at the scale of this, here’s another thing apparently that Donald Trump learned from Vladimir Putin during his first term, this is Putin-esque type of corruption and self-enrichment. And Maggie’s right, the laws don’t prohibit him from doing this. Common sense --

STEPHANOPOULOS: Potentially the Constitution does, the Emoluments Clause.

CHRISTIE: Well, that’s right. I mean there’s a difference between, obviously, as you know, between the individual ethics laws, which do not apply to him, but the emoluments clause, when you look at the plane. And what I think will start to hurt him more is that he says things that turn out to not be true. Oh, the plane is a gift. It won’t cost us anything. Well, no, it costs us hundreds of millions of dollars to get it up to Air Force One level of operation. Every time he says one of those things, the ballroom won’t cost anybody anything. Now we’re talking about them wanting to move a billion dollars to work on the ballroom.

So, you know, the American people are starting to catch up to this. You can feel it.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, that’s the question, Donna. Democrats seem to think -- they seem to be unifying around the idea that corruption is going to be an animating force in the midterm elections.

DONNA BRAZILE, FORMER DNC CHAIR & ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely, George. And why not? Look, look, Democrats are going to talk about affordability. They’re going to talk about making sure that the American people can make ends meet. But the -- Mr. Trump has turned the White House into a profit center. I mean, he talks about Nvidia. He talks about Microsoft. And the next day he goes out and gives a speech and then he posts it on social media, only to find out 67 million invested in Nvidia, 70 million in Microsoft, 63 million in Apple, 21 million in Broadcom, 31 million in Amazon. I need to call my broker and say, what the hell am I doing wrong? OK, clearly the president is doing something that brings a lot of profit to himself.

And Chris is absolutely right. Meanwhile, he’s telling the American people one thing and doing another. Oh, this is not going to cost you. I’m doing this. My donors are doing this. But we are paying the price for it. Democrats will make this an issue, affordability and accountability of this president.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Will Republicans pay a price in the midterms?

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST & FORMER RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Sure. And I think it depends largely how Democrats frame this. It’s -- it’s so baked in that Donald Trump, of course, is going to profit from the -- from the presidency. If we go back to the “Access Hollywood” tape, we were all shocked in Washington and in -- and in New York City about those comments.

The reality is, voters said, wait, the guy who was on the cover of “Playboy” magazine said something awful about women? No real surprise there. This isn’t surprising either. Unless Democrats are going to say, and really prosecute this case of, well, Donald Trump is focused on the plane, the ballroom, the Reflecting Pool, whatever it is, you’re spending more on shoes, socks, lettuce, beef, all of that. But also, it surprises me that Donald Trump isn’t more concerned about these midterm elections because we know he doesn’t care about legislative majorities, but he really should care about a Democratic House or Senate majority and the investigations they can prosecute (ph).

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, that’s what I want to bring to Maggie. We’ve had this series of public statements from the president over the last several weeks indicating that he doesn’t seem to care that much about the midterms. What did he tell you?

HABERMAN: He has been remarkably unconcerned about the midterms. We didn’t get into in depth with him about how, you know, he views the upcoming elections. But we do know from people we’ve spoken to around him and things he has said publicly that he considers it, I think his quote was an honor that Republicans do worse without him on the ballot. And so, he tends to see this as a binary and a reflection of his own power versus something else.

I think he may start to care the closer that we get to November, maybe in September. I agree with you in terms of the investigations. And I think that clearly the people around him are very aware of that because they are going to be subjected to it as much as anybody.

But the thing that we report in the book is that he has been talking about how he will pardon anybody who comes within a certain radius of the Oval Office. Sometimes it's 250 feet, sometimes it's 200, sometimes it's 25. There is a pardon radius. And he has said that he is going to grant pardons to all of these people.

You know, the Biden folks had talked about some sweeping, preemptive pardons for all political appointees. They shelved that idea. I think you will likely see something very similar. And in our reporting for the book, we spoke to a number of senior, senior Trump folks who are waiting for their pardons, expecting on their pardons.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Expecting. Absolutely, yes.

HABERMAN: And so that creates a very specific climate. I think the bigger question, I shouldn't say bigger, but a question is, how do you pass a spending bill if they don't control the House, if they lose both chambers? This could mess up their final two years in ways they're not seeing.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The president does seem to have in the last couple of days, you saw the Mount Rushmore speech, also the speech very early, late last night, early this morning, seems to have settled on the idea that if he talks about communism enough, that'll counter the corruption issue.

CHRIS CHRISTIE, ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. And look, the Democrats have a challenge in front of them that they have not met before. They haven't done it well. We'll see if they can do it well this time. Doug alluded to it. It's not enough to just talk about the corruption because the American people think both sides are corrupt and they just think this is Trump's turn. They think Biden was corrupt. They saw the Hunter Biden stuff with the paintings and the other thing. They think both sides are corrupt.

The connection has to be he doesn't care that you can't afford to pay your bills. He doesn't care. What he cares about is making money for himself. There has to be a direct connection between those two things, George, because otherwise I don't think it'll have any political potency at all unless you make the connection. And Democrats have just felt like they're cleansing themselves by complaining about the corruption stuff, but haven't effectively made the connection, in my view, yet. And if they don't, they're not going to get the maximum impact.

DONNA BRAZILE, ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I think the connection has been made, George, and you saw in the elections last year and most of the special elections this year that Democrats are connecting with voters on not just the affordability issue, but making the connection with the corruption while he's, you know, you know, fattening his wallet, you're losing money. You're losing money.

He's sitting on a housing bill, a bipartisan housing bill. And what are the so-called socialists, what we call the ultimate blue? What are they saying? They're saying the rent is too high. And Trump is saying, well, nobody cares about this housing bill. So, yes, I think Democrats have made the connection. I think the Democrats have to figure out right now, especially incumbents, that they better get back on the ground and talk to voters about what they really care about, because being anti-Trump is not the only issue. We saw that in Colorado. We've seen it now in New York. And Democrats have to focus, laser, on these so-called social (INAUDIBLE).

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's pick up on that. Wins by Democratic socialists in New York and Colorado, even have some Democrats saying that's electoral poison for the Democrats.

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST AND FORMER RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: You know, it's a real boon for Republicans who are struggling to have anything to talk about. And if we're talking several months ago, the question is, is Mamdani the face of the Democratic Party? Maybe. Maybe not. But there are a lot more faces now that Republicans can use and really scare voters on some scary policies, some scary rhetoric, the issue of Israel becomes that much more important.

And Republicans have a lot of silver linings despite Trump's terrible poll numbers. And when I was at the RNC in 2010 and Maggie would call me and harass me almost every day, our magic number for Obama --

BRAZILE: Harass?

HABERMAN: Fact-check.

HEYE: Harass.

HABERMAN: I'd ask you questions and do my job.

BRAZILE: Harass.

HEYE: Our magic number for Obama was 46. We felt if Obama was at or below that, we'd take back the House. And he was basically at 46. We won 63 seats. That math doesn't exist anymore. That map doesn't exist. But as low as Obama -- as Trump's numbers are, Republicans have a boon in the Supreme Court decision this week that they were very prepared for. They're outraising Democrats massively in every party -- every party committee level.

They're out registering voters in swing districts. There are a lot of silver linings for Republicans. And this adds to that. Trump still remains an albatross.

CHRISTIE: George, can I add something quickly about Mamdani, is I think we saw him make his first significant mistake this week.

STEPHANOPOULOS: First?

CHRISTIE: Yes, his first significant mistake politically is that he's been very upbeat. If you watch it here in New York, he's smiling, he's happy, he's upbeat.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Watch the next rally.

CHRISTIE: Right. He gave this dour pre-Fourth of July speech enormously critical of America and its history. And with a group of people standing around him, and he has -- he started to just get a little bit, I think, too harsh in that regard. Mamdani has been able to do what he's doing in the city because people have seen him as a happy warrior. He was not a happy warrior in that pre-Fourth of July speech. And we need to watch whether that's something that's going to continue, because like it or not, for the Democrats, he is an important part now of the national Democratic Party.

HABERMAN: He's also a really good political performer, which is, I think --

STEPHANOPOULOS:  Yeah.

HABERMAN:  -- is one thing that Mayor Mamdani is actually -- I mean, to your point pre the speech, he has been very, very effective in many, many ways politically.

And I don't know that every single candidate who has been elected in the last couple of primaries as a DSA candidate is able to say the same thing. So that is the risk.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  And one of the big questions is, what will define the Democratic Party going into the elections in November?

BRAZILE:  There's no question our message has to be focused on the people.

Look, I have a lot of criticism of some of my colleagues on the far left of the party. But the one thing I have to say about them, they're on the ground. They're talking to voters.

And they're not just talking about socialism. They're talking about jobs. They're talking about creating jobs. They're talking about housing.

They're talking about real everyday issues. You go to the grocery store, and you don't have the money, and you know you're falling short. They're talking about things the American people care about.

The Democratic Party is a big tent party. And so we have liberals. We have progressives. We have moderates.

And we have to understand that we are not going to be able to just go out there and say, well, that's a communist (ph). That's a socialist. No, this is an American who care to govern and will get results.

And that's what Mamdani -- look, he's balanced his budget. His speech --

CHRISTIE:  Oh, Donna.

BRAZILE:  Look --

CHRISTIE:  He's balanced his budget on the backs of --

BRAZILE:  He’s balanced his --

CHRISTIE:  -- everybody across New York City --

BRAZILE:  He’s balanced his --

CHRISTIE:  -- in the back of Governor (ph) Kathy Hochul to get her to raise taxes that she said she wouldn’t.

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE:  He's balanced his budget. He's delivering on the promises, especially with regards to child care. He's delivering.

And the voters want his results. They don't care about these labels.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  That's going to be the last word today. Thank you all for the great conversation.

And up next, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on the president's efforts to remake Washington.

We're back in two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STEPHANOPOULOS:  They were delayed by storms, but the show did go on. A massive July 4th fireworks show over Washington last night.

The president has made celebrating America's 250th birthday a major focus in recent months, but his efforts have hit some snags.

Here's ABC's Selina Wang.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SELINA WANG, ABC NEWS SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over):  This Fourth of July weekend, President Trump's long-promised birthday party for America colliding with reality. The National Mall wrapped in miles of security fencing, a dangerous triple-digit heat wave.

WANG:  So in the loudspeaker, they're actually telling people to leave the fair. The events have been postponed. I'm told by an organizer it's because of the intense heat.

WANG (voice-over):  Trump's 16-day Great American State Fair at times struggling to draw a crowd.

WANG:  Even before this announcement, there weren’t (ph) huge crowds around. You can see the booths for the different states lining the National Mall. Some of them had long lines, others pretty empty.

On Saturday, attendance was strong, but in the evening --

ANNOUNCER:  We need evacuation right away.

WANG (voice-over):  Confusion and disappointment as storm threats forced thousands on the National Mall for the Salute to America programming to evacuate. The remaining military flyovers canceled, and the main events delayed.

The events were organized by Freedom 250, a public-private partnership tied to the administration to commemorate the landmark anniversary. The Interior Department has put at least $68 million towards events for America’s 250th.

Freedom 250 says their events are non-partisan and for all Americans to enjoy, but some Democrats say America's 250th has been "hijacked to serve one man's vanity." In a new report, Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee alleging donors trying to give money to a congressionally sanctioned group were instead pushed to give to the organization tied to the president. Some, the report alleged, were given incorrect routing information.

A Freedom 250 spokesperson called that accusation categorically false, adding it's disheartening that some in Washington are more interested in scoring political points than honoring our nation's milestone.

But amid the patriotic fanfare, President Trump also injecting partisanship into the occasion, giving a politically charged address in front of the iconic Mount Rushmore.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:  Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty.

WANG (voice-over):  And wrapping the celebration on the National Mall with a speech that honored America.

TRUMP:  Here on our National Mall, we're celebrating freedom's triumph over tyranny.

WANG (voice-over):  But was also reminiscent of his signature rallies.

TRUMP:  We want to keep America great, and we will do so by approving the SAVE America Act, and you won't have cheating on the elections anymore.

WANG (voice-over):  Just a short walk away, Trump's crown jewel renovation, the Reflecting Pool, barricaded off for days ahead of the massive fireworks show to close out America's 250th. Trump spent $16 million in taxpayer money to renovate the pool, repainting it to make the water American flag blue.

But within days, the water turning green with algae, chunks of that freshly-painted bottom peeling loose, floating to the surface. Trump blamed vandals without providing any evidence.

TRUMP:  They put a big gash, 350 ft long. Think of that, 350 ft gash.

WANG (voice-over):  And this week, the Justice Department bringing a felony charge that carries up to 10 years in prison against former U. S. Olympian, David Hearn.

JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA:  The evidence shows, and we will prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that Hearn willfully destroyed property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

WANG (voice-over):  But Hearn told me he simply touched a piece of blue coating that was already partially detached from the bottom of the pool, telling me, quote, "I did not remove. I did not damage. I did not rip, tear, break, destroy or harm any part of the Reflecting Pool."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANOPOULOS:  Thanks, Selina, for that. We're joined now by the Secretary of Interior, Doug Burgum, who oversees the Reflecting Pool and the 250 celebrations.

Secretary Burgum, thank you for joining us this morning. I assume you had a late night, so appreciate you getting up this morning. Let's begin with the Reflecting Pool. President Trump originally said that fixing it would cost under $2 million. That cost has climbed above $15 million. And of course, the pool is still closed. So what went wrong? How are you going to fix it? How much is it going to cost?

DOUG BURGUM, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR:  Well, good morning, George.

First of all, let's put this all in context. Under President Trump's leadership, Washington, D. C., we fixed 48 monuments, 22 fountains that hadn't had water going for years. We eliminated over 1,000 graffiti sites.

All of these things have been going on across the city, and you know, everybody that lives in Washington, D. C. says the place has never look better. And of course, you look at the crime stats, the safe -- city has never been safer.

And so when we look in context, President Trump set out to make D. C. safe and beautiful. He's done that. The Reflecting Pool was part of the original design of the Lincoln Memorial. It's part of that memorial. It is part of one of the monuments that is important to us as a country. It was leaking 45,000 gallons a day.

It's been attempted to be fixed in the past, widely reported, by The New York Times, Washington Post and others that this pool was closed for two years between 2010 and 2012. $34 million was spent. It's a challenging thing.

This has got 2.5 miles of expansion joints. It is eight-acre pond. It has been a challenge. But now, with the industrial liner, it's not paint -- with the industrial liner that's gone in, the Reflecting Pool is not leaking.

New technology that hasn't existed before, nanobubblers taking care of the algae, the water is now clear. The reason why the fences were up the last week was to get ready for the world's largest fireworks show. On either side of the Reflecting Pool is where the fireworks are stationed.

And so this is a -- and anybody that's been there, some of the greatest photographs ever taken in recent weeks of both the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Memorial, reflecting that our history, our incredible history of those two presidents, one that helped found the country and the other that helped save the Union back and forth.

So the Reflecting Pool has been a big success. And we've got 340 million people in this country that are celebrating 250. We did have a few vandals, but all that's going to be repairable, and that'll all be fixed in the coming weeks as we go forward.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  Well, you say it's been a success, but the pool is going to be drained this week, isn't it?

BURGUM: We don’t know if we need to drain the whole thing or not because, you know, the cutting happened on the edge. And, of course, it slopes from the edge. It’s not a flat-bottom pool. It slopes from the edge to the middle. And so, we may be able to partially drain it and do the repair. The -- to be able to fix it, we may not have to drain the whole thing, but it can go -- it could go very quickly.

And of course, again, when you’re talking about 340,000 square feet of surface, even though there was, you know, damage done by vandals that was there, it is a small, small 99.99 percent of the pool bottom is perfect. The leaks have stopped. And so, this will be quickly, move on.

And again, I think the -- I think the press should move on too because we’ve got great things going on. This is the kickoff of our 250th year. We’re going to continue to have celebrations around the country. And, and, you know, the real -- the real story here is, how did we let this nation’s capital fall into such disrepair where we had monument after monument, statue after statue, fountain after fountain covered with graffiti, anti-American graffiti and how that was never reported in a story. And now when President Trump goes to fix it up, that becomes a story.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But -- but, sir, he promised it would be fixed for under $2 million. It’s already cost more than $15 million with a -- with a no bid contract. And the pool is going to be drained, at least in part. And you’ve also put -- you’re putting out solicitations for new bids. So, the pool is not fixed right now, is it?

BURGUM: Well, it’s fixed in the sense that it’s no longer leaking 45,000 gallons a day. And we’ve got, you know, less than one-tenth of one percent of that industrial liner that’s been damaged. And that’s the only thing that remains to go back and fix the damage done by the vandals. And then we’re going to be back in business again. And, of course, this was done for a fraction of the cost. The bid that was done in 2010-2012 was, you know, a $34 million contract. And so, it’s, you know, a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time.

And again, moving on, because we do have deferred maintenance across our national parks. President Trump ready to sign the Great American Outdoors Act. There’s great support for this. We believe that that bipartisan bill can come out and we can get after, you know, restoring things on our national parks across the country, not just here like he’s shown can be done in Washington, D.C.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You’ve reported that vandals caused the damage. The president has repeatedly claimed that vandals cut a 350-foot gash in the pool. That’s the claim that’s echoed in a legal filing by your department. What specific evidence do you have to back up that claim?

BURGUM: Well, we have the actual cuts that were made into the industrial liner. And that’s a, you know, been measured out. So, that’s just a fact that that’s -- that’s what we’ve got to go back and repair.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That there’s a 350-foot gash?

BURGUM: Well, it’s multiple gashes that add up to 350 feet across that. And so -- and again, some of this happened early on. There was a -- where we’ve installed more cameras. I mean, we weren’t expecting that we were going to have a small group of people that wanted to try to destroy effectively what is part of the Lincoln Memorial. There’s plenty of cameras around the Lincoln statue and around the memorial, but the Reflecting Pool had gone for, you know, decades without vandalism. But now we’ve got -- you know, we’ve got cameras up, and we’ve got more eyes on it. And we’ll let you know -- we have to -- that’s part of the job of The National Park Service, the U.S. Park Police, is to protect our monuments, and so we’re in -- we’re in better shape now. If anyone were to do something now, we would have better video evidence of that now.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you don’t -- but you don’t have video evidence of people making those gashes?

BURGUM: Well, we do -- we do have video, and we do have eyewitness reports. And that’s the -- that’s up to the courts now. So, that process will go forward in the legal system.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How much more is this going to cost?

BURGUM: I think it’s going -- the -- it’s going to be a small number because the majority of the work was related to the labor and the materials for the liner. And, of course, the new nano bubbler system, which has taken care of and won the battle against the algae, which is something, you know -- you know, in a -- in a shallow pool, in hot weather, has been -- has been a historic challenge. But now that’s working fantastically. If you’re down there today, again, as the fireworks get cleaned up from the incredible show we had last night, spectacular event celebrating our 250th. As the fences come down, we clean that up. Anybody that’s there and anybody that was there last week before the fireworks started being installed on either side of the --the Reflecting Pool could see that it was -- the water was crystal clear. So that part’s been taken care of.

So, again, we are -- we are, you know, on to the next thing because this has all been done so well.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  Mr. Secretary, thanks for your time this morning.

BURGUM:  Thank you, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  Up next, Jon Karl with a rare look from the top of Mount Rushmore and a part of that monument is like you've never seen before.

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STEPHANOPOULOS:  As America celebrates his 250th birthday, Jon Karl got an up-close look at one of America's most iconic landmarks, Mount Rushmore, along with a special tour of the Hall of Records behind it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT:  Wow. I mean, this is just incredible.

KARL (voice-over):  From the top of the mountain, you can truly sense the enormity of this presidential mountain carving.

KARL:  We've got Abraham Lincoln's nose right over there.

KARL (voice-over):  Few people ever get to see it from up here. For one, it's a little dangerous.

KARL:  It's a nice spot by Washington's head, but we can't get too close to the edge because that is a very steep drop.

KARL (voice-over):  When I was just 11 years old, I made a secret trip to the top of Lincoln's head. Back then, I wasn't allowed to tell anybody about it.

This time, our guide is Blaine Kortemeyer, one of a handful of people who have actually gone over the faces of Mount Rushmore.

KARL:  Does it ever get old for you to be up here?

BLAINE KORTEMEYER, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE PARK RANGER:  It does not. We're on top of Mount Rushmore.

KARL:  It's unbelievable, isn't it?

KARL (voice-over):  He goes over the faces every year to inspect for cracks. And in 2005, Blaine was part of the team that gave the monument its first and only cleaning, a power-washing of the faces.

KARL:  You went over Jefferson's head and you power-washed.

KORTEMEYER:  Yes, I did. Descending over the face is always hard to do every time.

KARL:  Yeah.

KORTEMEYER:  But it gets easier over the course of a day.

KARL (voice-over):  One little known fact about Rushmore, Jefferson's face was originally carved on the other side of Washington, but concerns about the structural integrity of the rock on that side scuttled the plans, and the original Jefferson was blasted away.

And just behind those massive heads, another Rushmore secret.

KARL:  Over here, the back of Mount Rushmore, the faces on the other side. But here, in this tunnel, a hidden story about Mount Rushmore.

KARL (voice-over):  We got special permission, almost never granted, to go inside this unfinished part of Rushmore, a project nearly as ambitious as the mountain carving itself.

BLAINE KORTEMEYER, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE RANGER:  This is the Hall of Records.

KARL:  This was going to be the place that stored America's most treasured documents. What -- the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address were all going to be here on display.

KARL (voice-over):  As the heads were being carved, workers dug this tunnel into the solid granite behind. It was supposed to hold the nation's founding documents.

This drawing done by Lincoln Borglum, the son of Rushmore's sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, shows what a finished Hall of Records was supposed to look like. But in 1939, Congress pulled the plug on the project, saying the only work to be done was to be on the faces of Mount Rushmore.

KORTEMEYER:  They only worked on this tunnel, this Hall of Records, for one year, 1938 to 1939.

KARL (voice-over):  We ventured deep into the tunnel, where inside the very back wall we found some of the original drill bits used to carve Mount Rushmore.

KARL:  This is pretty cool. We have here -- we have a drill bit, two drill bits that were actually used in the making of Mount Rushmore and the Hall of Records. So these are, you know, at least 85-years-old. That's when all the work stopped here.

KARL (voice-over):  More than a half century after Rushmore opened to the public, an addition was made to the unfinished hall, a secret time capsule for the ages. Underneath that engraved stone, there's a titanium vault and inside that a teakwood box holding copies of America's founding documents etched in porcelain.

KARL:  Right behind the faces is a time capsule, a time capsule that tells the story of America's first 150 years.

KARL (voice-over):  On that stone marker, the words of the sculptor about that monument, quote, "Carved high, as close to heaven as we can." Breathe a prayer, he wrote, that these records will endure until the wind and rain alone shall wear them away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KARL (on camera):  George, it was an extraordinary experience to basically follow in the footsteps of me as an 11-year-old going up to the top of that mountain. Back then, I was able to do it because of work my parents were doing, going out, finding and interviewing the people that worked to create Mount Rushmore.

This journey, very much like that last one, the one big difference I noticed, though, is there is a heck of a lot more security around that mountain. They really don't want anybody on the top unless you have permission. And thank you to the National Park Service, we did.

George?

STEPHANOPOULOS:  And thanks to you for sharing that experience with us.

Coming up, Martha Raddatz remembers Pearl Harbor and some of our youngest Americans celebrate our nation's founding document.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We hold these truths.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We hold these truths.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We hold these truths to be self-evident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That all men are created equal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That they are endowed by their Creator.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With certain unalienable rights.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That among these are life,

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Liberty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the pursuit of happiness.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the pursuit of happiness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Love seeing that. Up next, Martha Raddatz on a critical moment that shaped our country.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: Eighty-four years ago, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor pulled the nation into World War II.

Martha Raddatz visited the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum and the memorial that marks the solemn spot.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the bow of the USS Missouri, you can see the stark white memorial atop the USS Arizona, sunk by the Japanese on December 7th, 1941, marking the beginning of America's involvement in World War II.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The die is cast. America is at war.

RADDATZ (voice-over): And here on the deck of the Missouri is where the war officially ended.

FRANK CLAY, BATTLESHIP MISSOURI MEMORIAL CURATOR: That happened on September 2nd, 1945 in Tokyo Bay that ended World War II, which was the bloodiest conflict in human history.

RADDATZ (voice-over): Frank Clay is the curator of the memorial.

So this is where it actually happened.

CLAY: Yes. So this is the surrender plaque. Yes, this marks the exact location where the surrender documents were signed.

RADDATZ (voice-over): The ceremony was solemn. General Douglas McArthur signing for the U.S., the grandfather of the late Senator John McCain in the line of officers nearby, along with hundreds of sailors witnessing the moment.

CLAY: For a lot of the sailors on board the ship, it was very emotional for them to know that they were able to go home.

RADDATZ (voice-over): The Missouri had been in the thick of battle during the war, from IWO Jima to Okinawa, a kamikaze pilot even striking the ship.

CLAY: This picture shows that Japanese plane, literally, as it was striking the side of the Missouri. The really remarkable thing is when the plane hit the ship, the bomb it was carrying didn't explode, so the damage to the ship was relatively minor.

The pilot's body was discovered on board and the crew and Captain Callaghan, the ship's Commanding Officer, gave that Japanese pilot a proper burial at sea the next day.

RADDATZ (voice-over):  For Frank Clay, walking these decks is a powerful reminder of America's might and grace.

CLAY:  The end of the war was also the beginning of a new world. For Japan, the imperial dictatorship ended here and occupational forces implemented democracy. We also got their infrastructure and their industries back up online.

You know, we weren't going to leave them broken and destitute. And as a result, Japan and the United States are one of the most strongest allies in the world right now.

RADDATZ (voice-over):  Across the harbor, the Ford Island Operations Building and Control Tower bore witness to the Pearl Harbor attack as well, now part of the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum.

Chairman of the Board of the Museum, retired U.S. Air Force General, Ray Johns, flying me in a World War II aircraft.

GEN. RAY JOHNS, PEAR HARBOR AVIATION MUSEUM BOARD CHAIR & U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.):  Okay, you ready?

RADDATZ:  Ready.

JOHNS:  Okay.

RADDATZ (voice-over):  On the same deadly route some 350 Japanese aircraft took.

RADDATZ:  If you were looking up in the air that day, what would you see?

JOHNS:  Chaos. You would see torpedo bombers coming in, the Kates. You'd see dive bombers coming in. You'd see fighters, Zeros, doing strafing runs. You'd see all that ongoing, and you are in pure panic. You didn't know what was coming.

JOHN HILTZ, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, PEARL HARBOR AVIATION MUSEUM:  The air zone is right over here. You can --

RADDATZ (voice-over):  John Hiltz, a retired Navy fighter pilot, is now the CEO of the Museum.

HILTZ:  Nowhere else in America can you stand on an American battlefield that was in World War II. These are hallowed (ph) grounds. Those are really poignant reminders of the sacrifices that were made that day. But the attack on Pearl Harbor was an air raid, and it was a novel air raid. It was logistically unprecedented in scope and scale.

And to be able to tell that story about how that day transformed our nation, our world, but also how America responded to it. Those stories need to be told because they really do echo in eternity.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RADDATZ (on camera):  Those stories do indeed echo, especially here in Hawaii. But at the heart of all of those stories from here, said John Hiltz, is service and sacrifice and the resilience of America. George?

STEPHANOPOULOS:  No question about that. Thank you, Martha. We'll be right back.

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STEPHANOPOULOS:  That is all for us today. Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with us. Check out "World News Tonight." And I'll see you next on GMA.

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