Mark Ruffalo, Sarah Jessica Parker and more warn against Trump admin in video for America's 250th
WASHINGTON, DC: Mark Ruffalo, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ted Danson, and dozens of actors, writers, and activists marked America's 250th anniversary by releasing a video criticizing President Donald Trump's administration and urging Americans to defend democratic institutions ahead of the November midterm elections.
The video, released on Saturday, July 4, features participants reading excerpts from historian Timothy Snyder's 2017 book 'On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century'.
To celebrate a rebellion is to know that, from a flawed world, we can make new things. We can hold on, we can find each other, and not just imagine but create a much better America.
— Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder) July 4, 2026
It is a special 250th – it is ours. pic.twitter.com/TAFIliJBNH
Celebrities recite lessons from Timothy Snyder's 'On Tyranny'
The video, which debuted on Variety, opens with narration from Sarah Jessica Parker, who says, "Exactly 250 years ago, a revolutionary idea was born. Not that freedom was guaranteed, not that democracy would take care of itself, but that ordinary people could govern themselves."
Snyder then warns that this year's elections represent a critical moment for the country. "Today, the Republic is 250 years old... As I look ahead to this coming November, I see a turning point for our Republic, a time when things could turn very well or they could turn very ill indeed," he says.
The lineup includes Margaret Atwood, Judd Apatow, Joan Baez, Sophia Bush, Kimberle Crenshaw, Eric Holder, Billy Porter, Maria Ressa, Molly Ringwald, Bradley Whitford and others. Throughout the campaign film, participants recite lessons from 'On Tyranny', including "Do not obey in advance," "Beware of the one-party state," and "Believe in truth."
Snyder returns later in the film to argue that the United States can draw on its own history to confront contemporary challenges.
"250 years ago, the founders of the American Republic looked to the past. They looked to what they knew about tyranny," he says. "Today, when our Republic marks its 250th anniversary, we can look back at the founders, at our own history, and draw our own conclusion."
Referencing abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Snyder adds that Americans should "be rebels in our own time" and imagine "how the United States of America could be revolutionary, could be much better than it is today."
Mark Ruffalo, Sarah Jessica Parker outline hopes for America's future
Ruffalo, a longtime critic of Trump, told Variety he joined the project because he hopes the country moves away from policies he believes benefit the wealthy over ordinary Americans.
"My hope is that after this very bad and corrupt time we are living through now, we move away from a government that caters to the wealthy and powerful and focuses on the needs, desires and dreams of the children and young people," Ruffalo said.
Ruffalo urged Americans to "keep America moving toward its great promise and not the measly mistakes and cruelty of its past."
Parker closes the video by emphasizing that democracy requires continued public engagement. "The lesson of America is not that our Republic is a given," she says. "It is that it must be defended again and again by people who refuse to give up on one another... What happens next is not inevitable. It depends, as it always has, on us."
