The evening was part of Americans for Prosperity’s national “One Small Step” initiative, a $20 million campaign to activate conservatives to take “one small step” to advance the cause of freedom.
Former Republican National Committee Chair Lara Trump, a Fox News host and daughter-in-law of President Donald Trump, spoke in Nashville to rally conservatives in honor of America’s 250th anniversary.
Half political rally, half legislative reception, an event hosted by Americans for Prosperity of Tennessee celebrated the semiquincentennial and challenged attendees to take “one small step” of action to advance the cause of liberty.
The evening was part of Americans for Prosperity’s national “One Small Step” initiative, a $20 million campaign to activate conservatives to take “one small step” to advance the cause of freedom in their own communities.
“Isn’t it amazing that Donald Trump is president on America’s 250th birthday?” Trump said.
The crowd roared.
“Things happen in God’s time, they don’t happen in our time, right? We all wanted Donald Trump … to have two consecutive terms in office,” she said. “I think we can all agree it is far better that he had the four years in between and he is president of the United States now.”
Trump noted that the president worked to bring the 2028 Olympics to the United States, which will now occur during his presidency, negotiated a deal with Boeing for new Air Force One planes that are now being built, and also will preside over the nation’s semiquincentennial.
“Honestly, like, I can’t even pinpoint one thing that I’m more excited about, other than, let’s be honest, the UFC fight on the White House lawn,” Trump said.
“Whenever you want something unique done, tell President Trump he can’t do it. People were like, ‘Sir, you cannot have a UFC fight, an MMA fight, at the White House.’ And he was like, ‘I think we can. I think we can do it right here on the lawn,’” she said.
With many guests dressed in cowboy boots and bespangled Americana, attendees entered the venue on a red carpet and enjoyed a live band, open bar and hors d’oeuvres of barbecue and macaroni and cheese inside the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum ahead of the formal program.
Trump recalled moments from the president’s recent State of the Union address, touted his Working Family Tax Cut and gave the crowd an update on the “Big Beautiful Ballroom.”
“Wait until you see this ballroom. He is so excited about this. Every time I go to visit him, he brings out the little model and the diagram, and he’s like, ‘now this is the one I was going to choose,'” she says. “And he goes … ‘This is the one I chose, and it’s like, this big! Don’t tell the Democrats!’”
Calling gold a trademark color of any Trump property, she said the ballroom is going to be “epic.”
“I can’t wait for the American people to see what not a single one of you paid a penny for, because all the money was donated,” she said.
The reception area was dotted with larger-than-life cutouts of key figures in American history, such as Neil Armstrong, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright Brothers. As event favors, attendees received feather quill pens emblazoned with the phrase “one small step.”
AFP State Director Tori Venable honored a handful of people with trophies to recognize their work to defend liberty and individual rights. Among the honorees were state Rep. Bud Hulsey, R-Kingsport, and Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, who Venable said gave other officials “the ability to have a spine” on pandemic-related mandates.
“I told President Biden right where he could jab his vaccine mandate,” Jacobs said, accepting the trophy.
At one point, SuperTalk 99.7 host Matt Murphy delivered a dramatic rendition of Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech.
Tennessee’s newest member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Matt Van Epps, challenged the crowd to be worthy of the inheritance of liberty bought by the sacrifice of the patriots who fought for it.
In one of his first public speeches in Nashville since taking office in December, Van Epps challenged guests to “recommit to fighting for self government.”
“Free societies require active citizens who recognize the duties that come with liberty,” Van Epps said. “Self government and liberty must be partnered together, or else you get lawlessness and license.”
Van Epps lingered talking with constituents after the program but hastily left the venue without taking questions from the press.
Jacobs also encouraged the crowd to take action.
“Liberty is our birthright. It’s a gift that God gave us. But it has not, throughout history, been the normal arrangement,” Jacobs asked. “What small step are you going to take?”
Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. Reach her at [email protected].
