Trump's Great American State Fair is a fabulous flop Opinion

[Uncle Joe]

In the heat wave that has consumed most of America, I am cooled by the country’s frosty reception of the fair, and shamelessly drunk on schadenfreude.

I love President Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair. I love its emptiness. Its expensive food. Its ability to confound Trump-friendly media outlets that keep pretending it’s going great.

This spectacle on the National Mall in Washington, DC, part of Trump’s Trump-centric celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, is like watching your high school bully host a party that no one attends. It’s a daily humiliation for a wildly unpopular president who coopted what should be a unifying national celebration and turned it into repellent schlock.

And I love it so much it hurts.

Trump's Great American State Fair humiliation is soothing America

I love seeing Fox News broadcasting from the fair, its hosts claiming the place is filled with excited patriots while the scenes behind them show a vast expanse of untrod-upon grass with an occasional few humans milling along the fringes.

An aerial view of the National Mall on the first day of the Great American State Fair on June 25th, 2026, in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images

(snip)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/06/30/great-american-state-fair-trump-attendance/90741971007/

[Marie Marie]

1. Well said.

[sboatcar]

2. All those temporary buildings just like like garbage too

[Botany]

3. Sorry I didn't see that you had posted the same article before I posted it

[Uncle Joe]

4. That's cool, yours' is in a different forum

[Botany]

5. Those two words sum up Trump perfectly, REPELLENT SCHLOCK

N/t

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. MaddowBlog-Trump wants people to 'appreciate' his Great American State Fair flop

The president is looking for public gratitude in the wake of failure. He is likely to wait a long while.

It’s a problem that Trump’s “Great American State Fair” is an embarrassing flop.

Watching him ask people to “appreciate” his failure, however, makes the problem worse.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-06-30T20:15:06.252Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/great-american-state-fair-2026-trump-flop

When Trump headlined his own event last week to kick off the festivities, turnout was abysmal, and many attendees were seen leaving in the middle of the president’s campaign-style speech.

In the days that followed, the troubles intensified. NOTUS reported:

The 110-foot-tall Ferris wheel, a main attraction at the Great American State Fair for the country’s 250th anniversary, shut down for a couple of hours due to lack of power. The ice cream melted, but Iowa’s butter cow survived. And a display of the Confederate flag was removed from North Carolina’s booth after Gov. Josh Stein condemned the vendor for putting it up.[/blockquote]

The same report referred to “power outages” and “almost-empty or understaffed booths” before adding, “Rodeos and baby farm animals drew crowds but the fair appeared sparsely attended; there were no lines to get in, the lawn was fairly void of people and entertainers outnumbered guests at points.”

....Fox News has done its part to try to promote the gathering, even broadcasting live from the fair, but that apparently hasn’t helped. It’s easy to see the absence of attendees behind the on-air hosts and guests.

Every Fox News live shot today from Trump's post-rapture-like fair on the National Mall has been hilarious. Here's a supercut:

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-06-29T21:12:57.959Z

And did I mention that the event features a poorly made replica of the “triumphal” arch that Trump is so excited about? Because that’s an issue, too.

Everyone is talking about Trump’s mock up arch at the Great American State Fair, so I filmed it from top to bottom and front to back for everyone who can’t see it in person.

— amanda moore 🐢 (@noturtlesoup17.bsky.social) 2026-06-28T21:11:48.282Z

.....But it’s not quite that simple. For one thing, he’s the one who helped turned the event into a partisan affair. For another, he’s also the one urging people to “appreciate” his failure.