Today is Memorial Day, a time when the American people remember the more than one million Americans who gave their lives in defense of the country and the God-given rights they believed belong to all men. Their bodies rest in military cemeteries such as Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and in foreign fields in France, Belgium, the Philippines, South Korea and beneath the deep waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Theirs is a story of courage and sacrifice that began in Lexington, Massachusetts in April 1775 when a small group of American citizen soldiers faced the professional troops of Great Britain, the world’s foremost military power. Eight American patriots were killed that April morning.
“Two and a half centuries ago at Lexington Green, Concord Bridge, Bunker Hill, brave Minute Men and humble farm boys became the first to give their lives for a nation that did not yet have a name,” said President Donald Trump in his 2025 Memorial Day message. “Those young men could never have known what their sacrifice would mean to us, but we certainly know what we owe to them. Their valor gave us the freest, greatest, and most noble republic ever to exist on the face of the earth.”
To commemorate the achievement of those Americans who won this country’s independence, President Trump proclaimed May 17, 2026, a National Day of Rededication, called "Rededicate 250," as a day of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving for the United States.
Two-hundred and fifty years ago, on that date, the Continental Congress called on all Americans to pray for God’s guidance and mercy in the momentous conflict they were undertaking.
In his National Day of Prayer message on May 11, President Trump declared, “as we celebrate 250 glorious years, we pledge to never forget the countless blessings God has bestowed upon our people and our country. From the cradles of civilization in the ancient world to the Christian empires of medieval Europe and the miraculous founding of our own Nation, the entire Western experience has been connected by a golden thread of devotion to God.”
America’s faith, he noted, “was seen most prominently during our struggle for independence, when the Second Continental Congress declared a day of ‘humiliation, fasting, and prayer’ to seek God’s providence and ask for His protection and blessing in their fight for freedom, virtue, and posterity.”
“Today,” President Trump affirmed, “faith in God is resurging on American shores like never before. Throughout this historic year, we rejoice in the triumph of the American spirit and in the love and grace of Almighty God.”