2026-07-27T06:00:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
在特朗普总统的第二任期内，共和党加大了对左翼团体使用的难以追踪的筹款手段的攻击。如今，这些努力可能会迫使一个与特朗普本人相关的项目披露更多信息：Freedom 250，美国250周年诞辰庆祝活动的幕后主体。
当特朗普政府着手规划美国250周年纪念活动时，并未成立新的慈善机构。相反，美国国家公园基金会——一个经国会特许、为国家公园管理局筹集资金的非营利组织——于2025年10月设立了一家特殊子公司，并将其注册在特拉华州。
特朗普总统宣布，以有限责任公司形式组建的Freedom 250将为美国举办“你见过的最盛大的生日派对”。政府记录显示，美国国家公园基金会获得了约9000万美元的联邦资金以支持此次庆祝活动。文件显示，Freedom 250还单独向企业赞助商寻求七位数捐款，但并未提交任何公开的财务披露信息。
这种合法结构在非营利领域并不陌生，慈善机构通常会托管那些不具备自身免税资格的项目，这种安排被称为财政赞助——这一术语并未出现在税法中。美国国家公园基金会将Freedom 250描述为其“全资子公司”，为公园管理局提供“规划和执行250周年纪念活动所需的专业支持”。
Freedom 250无需自行提交纳税申报表，以其名义筹集的资金在法律上归美国国家公园基金会所有。目前没有独立的会计披露信息说明该项目的资金流动规模、支出方式或运营团队。
专门研究非营利组织会计的俄亥俄州立大学教授布莱恩·米滕多夫表示，慈善机构面临广泛的公共披露要求，“至少部分原因是它们通过税收优惠获得公众支持”。他指出，虽然慈善机构必须披露其拥有像Freedom 250这样的实体，但无需详细说明该项目的筹款或支出情况。
“透明度方面一直存在这样的挑战，”米滕多夫告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻。
多年来，共和党一直仔细审查这类筹款体系，认为左翼非营利组织利用宽松的联邦监管为所谓的党派事业提供资金。自由派团体否认存在任何不当行为。
如今，共和党的相关行动有所升级。众议院筹款委员会的共和党议员上周推进了一项法案，要求慈善机构在其纳税申报表中披露财政赞助安排。该法案还将对被认定为“不当”通过此类安排转移的资金征收20%的税——若未纠正，税率将升至100%。
圣母大学法学院非营利组织研究专家劳埃德·迈耶表示，根据该法案，美国国家公园基金会可能需要在其年度纳税申报表中报告其与Freedom 250的合作安排的某些细节，包括资金流动规模和管理团队。该法案并未要求基金会披露Freedom 250的个人捐赠者。
财政部长斯科特·贝森特上周在一份声明中支持该法案，称其“补充了财政部在提高透明度、加强税收管理以及就免税组织的某些活动提供更清晰报告方面的工作”。他补充说，财政部“正在采取行动，防止非营利组织身份被用于纵容或掩盖欺诈、滥用和非法极端主义活动”。
筹款委员会未回应置评请求。白宫新闻办公室也未回应关于特朗普是否支持该法案或是否就此事与财政部沟通的提问。
“共和党可能会在税法中写入财政赞助的定义，却意外地将非营利部门内远超其预期的大量合作关系和项目纳入其中，”代表非营利部门团体的Integer有限责任公司管理合伙人萨拉·巴尔巴说道，“财政赞助有多种不同类型。”
自称是美国最大非营利网络的全国非营利理事会负责公共政策活动的高级副总裁萨拉·萨迪安表示：“国会议员应该意识到，通过类似这样的立法可能会产生非常广泛的影响，甚至波及他们支持的项目。”
近几个月来，非营利部门与共和党之间的紧张关系加剧。众议院筹款委员会的资深共和党议员、密苏里州众议员杰森·史密斯向与进步派慈善家内维尔·罗伊·辛厄姆有关联的非营利组织发出传票，要求提供有关财政赞助的详细信息。辛厄姆与女权反战组织“代码粉色”联合创始人朱迪·埃文斯结婚，今年7月哥伦比亚广播公司新闻曾报道，他因在其所控制的非营利组织的纳税申报表上撒谎或可能非法通过这些机构转移资金，正受到纽约南区大陪审团的刑事调查。
史密斯已针对左翼非营利组织发起一系列调查，其中包括由进步派瑞士亿万富翁汉斯约格·怀斯资助的组织，怀斯对以财政赞助形式组织的团体的支持一直受到共和党审查。众议院委员会上周还推进了另一项法案，禁止非营利组织在收到外国国民捐款后的两年内向政治行动委员会捐款。
怀斯的发言人在一份声明中表示，这些法案是“试图阻止非营利组织开展诸如扩大医疗保健可及性、保护公共土地以及促进经济机会等议题的工作”。声明补充称，怀斯的组织“遵守了管理我们活动的法律和规则，所有赠款资金均禁止用于支持或反对政治候选人、政党或其他选举活动”。
“从白宫运作”
根据共和党法案可能被要求披露更多信息的Freedom 250，在公司备案文件中的描述与管理国家公园管理局的内阁部长的说法截然不同。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻查阅的公司备案文件显示，Freedom 250的实益拥有人是露丝·普雷斯科特，她是美国国家公园基金会的执行副总裁兼首席治理官。备案文件中未列出任何白宫官员。
但内政部长道格·伯古姆无法确认谁负责运营Freedom 250。他在5月的国会听证会上表示，他“不知道Freedom 250的最终决策者是谁”，随后在接受美国有线电视新闻网采访时称该组织“从白宫运作”。
国家公园基金会主席兼首席执行官杰夫·伦博尔德在2月的听证会上表示，该基金会“应国家公园管理局的要求创立了Freedom 250”。
美国国家公园基金会的一位发言人在发给哥伦比亚广播公司新闻的一份声明中表示，该组织与国家公园管理局达成协议，管理国会拨款的资金，并“确保Freedom 250有限责任公司妥善分配和核算拨款项目资金”。当被问及Freedom 250的筹款情况时，该发言人表示，Freedom 250没有外国或个人捐赠者——并补充称，企业赞助商“除了少数要求匿名的赞助商外，均已在Freedom 250的网站上列出，这是非营利组织的常规做法”。网站上列出的赞助商包括雪佛龙、波音、埃克森美孚和万事达卡。
内政部未回应置评请求。
在250周年纪念活动筹备期间，Freedom 250开展了密集的筹款活动。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻报道称，该团体举办了一系列音乐会，以及在国家广场举办的“伟大美国州博览会”，并于6月在白宫南草坪举办了终极格斗冠军赛综合格斗赛事。
特朗普政府任命了特朗普的盟友担任该基金会的董事会成员，包括特朗普的首席筹款官梅雷迪思·奥罗克，以及特朗普2024年竞选团队的联合经理克里斯·拉西维塔。《纽约时报》最先报道的一份筹款邀请函显示，捐款至少100万美元的捐赠者可受邀参加“特朗普先生主办的私人Freedom 250招待会”，并获得“历史性合影机会”。文件显示，捐款至少250万美元的捐赠者可在7月4日的庆祝活动中发表讲话。
国会民主党人已对Freedom 250展开调查，将该实体描述为“能够渗透纪念活动并将特朗普极端党派议程注入美国250周年庆典的影子组织”，众议院自然资源委员会7月发布的一份55页的 interim staff report 中如此写道。
该报告援引了Freedom 250今年举办的活动——例如5月举办的为期一天的祈祷集会，邀请了保守派基督教神职人员，以及其“自由卡车”车队——一个移动博物馆舰队，内容涉及美国历史，与保守派组织PragerU和密歇根州保守派希尔斯代尔学院合作呈现。
一位不愿透露姓名的白宫官员表示，Freedom 250将“全国各地的合作伙伴、机构和社区联系起来，提升地方和公民参与国家舞台的程度”，并补充称，该团队致力于确保250周年纪念活动“既深深扎根于社区，又在全国范围内充分实现”。
“被用作强制披露的武器”
在民主党调查Freedom 250之际，一些在非营利部门工作的保守派人士表示，共和党主导的努力可能会迫使这个与白宫有关联的团体披露更多信息，这具有讽刺意味。
“这将同时牵连左右两派的团体，并成为为那些寻求隐私的人流行的捐款方式设置障碍的手段，”为保守派和自由意志主义捐赠者提供咨询的最大非营利组织之一DonorsTrust的主席兼首席执行官劳森·贝德说道，“这最终违背了言论自由，我认为他们没有仔细考虑过这一点。”
由前副总统迈克·彭斯创立的组织“推进美国自由”的总法律顾问马克·惠特表示赞同。“国会的这些人忘了，所有这些强制披露的武器都曾被用来对付保守派——我们当时就反对过，”惠特在谈及2013年美国国税局审查寻求免税地位的保守派团体的争议时说道。
特朗普政府内部也正在形成一项揭露非营利组织合作关系的举措。财政部官员在2026年4月下旬宣布，美国国税局计划修订990表——免税组织提交的年度纳税申报表——以要求“更清晰地报告”政府拨款、政府合同和财政赞助安排。
这项以“揭露隐藏资金”为口号的公告称，近期的国会监督工作引发了担忧，即某些财政赞助安排可能被用于掩盖资金来源。财政部和美国国税局表示，在最终确定相关规则之前，他们计划发布拟议法规并征求公众意见。
财政部表示，新法规将要求慈善机构更详细地报告政府拨款和合同——包括公共资金的来源和支出方式。财政部发言人将哥伦比亚广播公司新闻的问询转至贝森特关于共和党法案的声明。
“鉴于Freedom 250接受联邦资金，财政部正在考虑的法规应适用于Freedom 250的活动，”迈耶说道。
美国国家公园基金会的发言人告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，该非营利组织按照法律要求定期向国会提交经审计的财务报表。
但迈耶表示，与联邦纳税申报表相比，这些文件为基金会提供了更多的披露空间，而根据财政部正在权衡的规则，纳税申报表将要求披露更多信息。
“经审计的财务报表不需要像990表那样详细的信息，”迈耶补充道，“信息只是基本的资金进出，当然不会披露支出的具体接收方。”
Republicans spent years targeting progressive dark money. That could now boomerang on Trump
2026-07-27T06:00:00-0400 / CBS News
During President Trump’s second term, Republicans have escalated their attacks on hard-to-trace fundraising methods used by left-leaning groups. Now, those efforts could force more disclosure for a project linked to Mr. Trump himself: Freedom 250, the entity behind America’s 250th birthday celebration.
When the Trump administration set out to plan events for America’s 250th anniversary, it did not build a new charity. Instead, the National Park Foundation — a congressionally chartered nonprofit that raises money for the National Park Service — created a special subsidiary in October 2025 and established it in Delaware.
President Trump declared that Freedom 250, organized as a limited liability company, would throw America “the most spectacular birthday party you’ve ever seen.” The National Park Foundation received roughly $90 million in federal dollars to support the celebration, government records show. Freedom 250 separately solicited seven-figure donations from corporate sponsors, documents show, without filing any public financial disclosures of its own.
This kind of lawful structure is familiar in the nonprofit world, where charities routinely house projects that lack their own tax-exempt status, an arrangement known as fiscal sponsorship — a term that does not appear in the tax code. The National Park Foundation describes Freedom 250 as a “wholly owned subsidiary” that provided the Park Service with “access to the expertise needed for planning and executing the events” for the 250th.
Freedom 250 files no tax return of its own, and money raised in its name legally belongs to the National Park Foundation. There is no standalone accounting on these disclosures of how much flowed through the project, how it was spent, or who ran it.
Charities face broad public-disclosure requirements “at least in part because they are publicly supported through tax benefits,” said Brian Mittendorf, an Ohio State University professor who specializes in nonprofit accounting. But while a charity must disclose that it owns an entity like Freedom 250, it is not required to break out how that project raised or spent its money, he said.
“There’s always been this challenge for transparency,” Mittendorf told CBS News.
For years, Republicans have scrutinized this exact type of fundraising system, arguing that left-leaning nonprofits abused lax federal regulations while funding allegedly partisan causes. Liberal groups have denied any impropriety.
Now, those GOP efforts have ramped up. Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee advanced a bill last week that would require charities to disclose fiscal sponsorship arrangements on their tax returns. And it would also impose a tax of 20% on funds deemed to have been “improperly” routed through them — rising to 100% if not corrected.
Under the bill, the National Park Foundation would likely have to report certain details about its arrangement with Freedom 250 on its annual tax return, including how much money moved through it and who manages it, said Lloyd Mayer, a professor and expert on nonprofits at the University of Notre Dame’s law school. The bill would fall short of requiring the foundation to list Freedom 250’s individual donors.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threw his support behind the bill in a statement last week, saying that it “complements Treasury’s work to improve transparency, strengthen tax administration, and provide clearer reporting on certain activities of tax-exempt organizations.” He added that the department is “taking action to prevent nonprofit status from being used to enable or conceal fraud, abuse, and illegal extremist activity.”
The Ways and Means Committee did not respond to requests for comment. The White House Press Office did not respond to questions about whether Mr. Trump supports the bill or has communicated with the Treasury Department about it.
“Republicans may write a definition into the tax code for fiscal sponsorship that could accidentally lump in a lot more relationships and projects within the nonprofit sector than they intended,” said Sara Barba, a managing partner at Integer, LLC, who represents groups in the nonprofit sector. “There are several different types of fiscal sponsorships.”
Sarah Saadian, the senior vice president of public policy campaigns for the National Council of Nonprofits, which describes itself as the largest nonprofit network in the United States, said “members of Congress should realize that when they pass legislation like this it could have a really broad effect, even on projects they support.”
Tensions between the nonprofit sector and Republicans have heated up in recent months. The top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, Missouri Rep. Jason Smith, issued subpoenas to nonprofits connected to progressive philanthropist Neville Roy Singham — requesting details about fiscal sponsorships. Singham, who is married to Jodie Evans, the co-founder of feminist anti-war group Code Pink, is under criminal investigation by a grand jury in the Southern District of New York over whether he lied on tax forms for nonprofits he controls or may have unlawfully funneled money through them, CBS News reported in July.
Smith has launched a series of probes into left-leaning nonprofits, including those funded by the progressive Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, whose support for groups organized as fiscal sponsorships has drawn GOP scrutiny. The House panel advanced a separate bill last week that would bar nonprofits from donating to PACs for two years after receiving money from a foreign national.
A spokesperson for Wyss said in a statement that the bills are “an attempt to stop nonprofits from working on issues like increasing access to health care, conserving public land, and promoting economic opportunity.” The statement added that Wyss’ groups “have complied with laws and rules governing our activities, and all grant funding is prohibited from being used to support or oppose political candidates or parties or other electoral activity.”
“Run out of the White House”
Freedom 250 — the entity that could be roped into more disclosure under the GOP bill — has been described one way in corporate filings and another by the cabinet secretary whose department oversees the National Park Service.
Corporate filings reviewed by CBS News list Freedom 250’s beneficial owner as Ruth Prescott, the executive vice president and chief governance officer of the National Park Foundation. The filings do not list any White House officials.
But Interior Secretary Doug Burgum could not identify who ran Freedom 250. He testified to Congress in May that he was “not aware of the final decision maker on Freedom 250,” and later told CNN that the group was “run out of the White House.”
Testifying in February, National Park Foundation president and CEO Jeff Reinbold said the foundation had “created Freedom 250 at the request of the National Park Service.”
A spokesperson for the National Park Foundation said in a statement shared with CBS News that the group entered into an agreement with the National Park Service to manage congressionally appropriated funds and “to ensure Freedom 250 LLC properly distributes and accounts for appropriated project funds.”
Asked about Freedom 250’s fundraising, the spokesperson said there have been no foreign or individual donors to Freedom 250 — adding that corporate sponsors, “except for a handful of sponsors that have requested anonymity, a typical nonprofit practice,” are listed on Freedom 250’s website. Some listed on the website include Chevron, Boeing, ExxonMobil and Mastercard.
The Interior Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Ahead of the 250th celebration, Freedom 250 went on a fundraising blitz. The group hosted a concert series as well as a “Great American State Fair” on the National Mall and a UFC mixed martial arts event on the South Lawn of the White House in June, CBS News reported.
The Trump administration appointed allies of the president to the board of the foundation, including Meredith O’Rourke, Mr. Trump’s top fundraiser, and Chris LaCivita, Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign co-manager. A fundraising solicitation, first reported by the New York Times, offered donors who gave at least $1 million invitations to a “private Freedom 250 reception hosted by Mr. Trump” with a “historic photo opportunity.” Those giving at least $2.5 million were offered speaking roles at a July 4 celebration, the document said.
Democrats in Congress have investigated Freedom 250, casting the entity as a “shadow organization capable of infiltrating the celebrations and injecting America’s 250th with Trump’s extreme, partisan agenda,” according to a 55-page interim staff report released in July by the House Natural Resources Committee.
The report cited Freedom 250’s events this year — such as a daylong prayer gathering in May featuring conservative Christian clergy, as well as its “Freedom Trucks,” a fleet of mobile museums that featured content about American history with the conservative group PragerU and conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan.
A White House official, who would speak only on background, said Freedom 250 connected “partners, institutions, and communities across the country to elevate local and civic participation on the national stage,” adding that the group worked to ensure the 250th anniversary was “both deeply rooted in communities and fully realized at a national scale.”
“Weapons to force more disclosure”
As Democrats investigate Freedom 250, some conservatives who work in the nonprofit sector said it is ironic that a Republican-led effort could force more disclosure for the White House-linked group.
“This would ensnare groups on both the right and left, and become a bulwark against what is becoming a popular giving vehicle for those seeking privacy,” said Lawson Bader, the president and CEO of DonorsTrust, one of the largest nonprofits that advise conservative and libertarian donors. “It ultimately goes up against free expression, and I don’t think they are thinking that through.”
Marc Wheat, general counsel for Advancing American Freedom, a group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, agreed. “These guys on the Hill forget that all these weapons to force more disclosure were used against conservatives — and we were opposed to it,” said Wheat, referring to the 2013 controversy over the IRS’ scrutiny of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.
An effort to unmask nonprofit relationships is also taking shape in the Trump administration. At the Treasury Department, officials announced in late April 2026 that the IRS plans to revise the Form 990 — the annual return filed by tax-exempt groups — to require “clearer reporting” on government grants, government contracts and fiscal sponsorship arrangements.
The announcement, billed as an effort “to expose hidden funding,” said recent congressional oversight had raised concerns that some fiscal sponsorship arrangements may be used to obscure funding. The Treasury Department and the IRS say they expect to issue proposed regulations and take public comment before finalizing anything.
The regulations would require charities to report government grants and contracts in far more detail — where public funds came from and how they were spent, the department said. A spokesperson for the Treasury Department referred CBS News to Bessent’s statement about the GOP bill.
“Given Freedom 250 receives federal funding, the regulations Treasury is considering should reach Freedom 250’s activities,” Mayer said.
The spokesperson for the National Park Foundation told CBS News that the nonprofit regularly shares its audited financial statements with Congress, as required by law.
But Mayer said these documents give foundations more leeway as far as what they disclose, compared to federal tax forms, which would demand more under the rules Treasury is weighing.
“Audited financial statements do not require the level of detail that a Form 990 does,” Mayer added. “The information is basic money-in, money-out, certainly not individual recipients of expenditures.”