The “And Company” part of Thursday’s Amanpour and Company on PBS presumed to speak on behalf of the whole country when offering up some gloomy predictions about the upcoming America 250 celebrations. Walter Isaacson claimed that “we” are not looking forward to the celebrations, while author and The New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore claimed the “epic moment will elude us” partly due to President Trump. Isaacson asked Lepore, “In a month, we're going to be celebrating our 250th. But boy, we seem like we're in no mood for a celebration. How difficult is it to celebrate at a time like this politically?”   PBS goes full Debbie Downer ahead of America 250 with Walter Isaacson asking "In a month, we're going to be celebrating our 250th. But boy, we seem like we're in no mood for a celebration. How difficult is it to celebrate at a time like this politically?" The New Yorker's Jill… pic.twitter.com/TXRfNcgyJX — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) May 29, 2026   Before anyone could ask, "Who is we?” Lepore echoed the sentiment while adding Trump has a lot to do with it, “It really is a kind of perfect storm. There's just so much going on in the country, really, from town to town, city neighborhood to city neighborhood, where people are asking basic questions about the nature of the American experiment, the meaning of our heritage, the direction of the nation's future. I mean, between the 250th, the kind of ongoing, rolling, intense debates that the Trump administration spurs.” Lepore continued by suggesting that concerns about AI will somehow affect the celebrations, “And we're also in the midst of this, you know, AI backlash moment, this techlash moment. So, I think there's going to be a lot of hot dogs and parades and baseball games and bicycle races and basketball games and a lot of regular old standard 4th of July celebration, but I think the larger kind of epic moment will elude us.” By “we” and “us” Isaacson and Lepore mean themselves and other liberals. For the rest of “us,” “we’re” going to be just fine because there have been “intense debates” about “the nation’s future” for the last 250 years—some much more intense than the ones about Trump—and there will be for the next 250 years, and PBS isn’t going to be able to ruin it by making America’s 250th birthday about their opposition to Trump. Here is a transcript for the May 28 show: PBS Amanpour and Company 5/28/2026 WALTER ISAACSON: In a month, we're going to be celebrating our 250th. But boy, we seem like we're in no mood for a celebration. How difficult is it to celebrate at a time like this politically? JILL LEPORE: It really is a kind of perfect storm. There's just so much going on in the country, really, from town to town, city neighborhood to city neighborhood, where people are asking basic questions about the nature of the American experiment, the meaning of our heritage, the direction of the nation's future. I mean, between the 250th, the kind of ongoing, rolling, intense debates that the Trump administration spurs. And we're also in the midst of this, you know, AI backlash moment, this techlash moment. So, I think there's going to be a lot of hot dogs and parades and baseball games and bicycle races and basketball games and a lot of regular old standard 4th of July celebration, but I think the larger kind of epic moment will elude us.