This is Donald Trump’s “Great American State Fair” pictured in all its crowd-free glory.
The spectacle on the National Mall in Washington D.C. is ready to receive thousands of visitors. Instead, it is virtually deserted.
Not that there is much to see. Amid the sprawling stretches of open space, there is a 110-foot Freedom 250 ferris wheel and a tacky plywood “Triumph Arch” dominating the center of the grounds, a replica of the monument Trump wants to build near D.C.’s sacred Arlington Cemetery.
There are no corn dogs or funnel cakes. No roller coasters or merry go rounds. And by Friday morning, Pennsylvania became the latest of several Democratic states to declare it was not taking part.
The plan was to have representation from all 50 states. But some had opted out due to the high cost to taxpayers or not being able to secure any businesses to sponsor a booth. Others had chosen not to attend after the supposedly nonpartisan event suddenly seemed political, with Trump himself kicking off the fair with a MAGA rally earlier this week.
The most noticeable thing: the lack of crowds.
The Daily Beast was at the fair in the late afternoon and early evening, hoping to see a flood of people arrive after school and work.
As temperatures climbed, a clump of fairgoers waited under the hot DC sun for a ride on the Freedom 250 Ferris wheel—the festival’s marquee attraction —even as much of the surrounding fairgrounds remained conspicuously quiet.
Elsewhere, a jazz band played to an audience of about 10 people. (Don’t ask about the food: On its first full day, a power shortage hit the food pavilion, resulting in melted ice cream and concerns about spoiled goods.)
The most energetic vibe wasn’t at the Ferris wheel or the live rodeo; it was packed into an evangelical Christian tent, singing and dancing to a worship band, present despite some rather famous lines in the Constitution about church and state.
Every state is supposed to have an exhibit at the fair. But some looked more like hastily assembled trade show booths than a celebration of America’s semiquincentennial.
Kansas features a cardboard cutout of Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow, ready for visitors to pose in, although none posed when the Daily Beast saw it.
D.C.’s has a plastic cherry blossom tree, while Ohio’s pavilion plays videos of Republican governor Mike DeWine promoting a Dolly Parton library.
The most lively showcase was arguably West Virginia’s, where attendees can ride a driving simulator through a scenic route, in a nod to John Denver’s Take Me Home.
Other states simply didn’t send anything.
“The State of Oregon will not be participating in the Great American State Fair due to both the cost of participating in the Fair and growing concerns that the event in Washington D.C. is shaping up to be a more partisan affair than originally presented,” Oregon spokesperson Luke Harkins told CNN.
As a result, organizers sought to make up for their absence with lackluster results: the North Carolina booth, for example, sparked outrage after it somehow featured an altered state flag with a Confederate symbol.
The Maine pavilion featured a drab room with facts about the state and its trademark lobster on the walls. Oregon, for its part, got a wall that simply said “the beaver state” and one wooden chair.
“This one is boring!” a young boy squealed as he peeped into the room and promptly walked out.
The subdued atmosphere comes as Trump’s Freedom 250 project continues to court controversy.
The White House created the initiative after months of tensions with the congressionally chartered America250 commission, which had spent years planning the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations before Trump’s team launched its own parallel vision for the milestone.
The competing organizations have feuded over programming, branding and the direction of the anniversary, while critics have accused the administration of transforming what was intended to be a unifying national celebration into a Trump-centric production.
The temporary Triumph Arch has become one of the most visible symbols of that effort, with critics dismissing it as a taxpayer-funded vanity project planted in the middle of the National Mall.
Trump, meanwhile, kicked off the event with a rally on Thursday night, telling the crowd that the celebration marked the beginning of America’s new “Golden Age” and promised even bigger festivities when he returns on July 4.
The next day, after footage showed less-than-expected numbers and scores of people walking out during his speech, the president put out a self-soothing post declaring the opposite.
“The Crowd was incredible last night, packed to the brim — At least 45,000 people were there, with a huge Television and online audience,” the 80-year-old wrote on Truth Social.
“I wish we were able to have an even larger area, which we will be able to do on July 4th when I’ll be speaking again. The airplane flyovers and music were fantastic. Everybody stayed right until the end of my Speech because they loved hearing about a truly successful America.”
