The Great American State Fair is a 16-day event happening right now on the National Mall. Freedom 250, the White House-affiliated organization planning many of the events marking the nation’s 250th birthday, described it as, “A world-class exposition and modern-day World’s Fair celebrating the people, traditions, innovations, and spirit that make America the greatest nation on Earth.”

In reality, it’s turning into Donald Trump’s answer to the Fyre Festival.

To be fair, no Americans are trapped in disaster relief tents on the National Mall subsisting on dry cheese sandwiches (yet). But the event, which kicked off on June 24 and ends on July 10, has been plagued by one embarrassment after another, from low attendance to power outages to a janky wooden replica of Trump’s planned triumphal arch.

… Or maybe it’s a smashing success?

You can take a look at the evidence below and decide for yourself. But we can all agree that it’s hard to imagine any other president making this the centerpiece of America’s 250th anniversary celebration.

The ‘Number One Attraction’ is Trump.

The drama started well before the Great American State Fair even began. A bunch of washed-up ‘80s and ‘90s music acts were booked for the fair’s concert series. When most of them canceled, Trump announced on Truth Social that they would be replaced by “the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!), DONALD J. TRUMP.”

The president’s kickoff speech on June 24 was pretty standard. It featured his usual rally rants (attacking his predecessors, touting anti-trans policies, etc.) and ultimately devolved into a fight over crowd size. Various outlets observed that the National Mall was far from packed, and the crowd thinned out during Trump’s 28-minute speech:

Crowds flock towards the exit in the middle of Trump's speech. pic.twitter.com/bM3DPhsM4M— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) June 25, 2026

Crowds flock towards the exit in the middle of Trump's speech. pic.twitter.com/bM3DPhsM4M

The next day on Truth Social, Trump shared some inflated crowd estimates and insisted “Everybody stayed right until the end of my Speech because they loved hearing about a truly successful America.”

The attendance is sparse.

View from atop the Ferris Wheel at the Great American State Fair!! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/nQAXNMpKfx— Dean Cain (@RealDeanCain) June 27, 2026

View from atop the Ferris Wheel at the Great American State Fair!! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/nQAXNMpKfx

The crowd-size debate kept raging over the weekend. Trump insisted that the Great American State Fair has been “packed with happy people” and Fox News claimed there were “thousands of people celebrating with us” over footage that told a very different story:

FOX: We’re celebrating at the great American state fair, we've got thousands of people celebrating with us. pic.twitter.com/bEA1bqPs1K— Acyn (@Acyn) June 27, 2026

FOX: We’re celebrating at the great American state fair, we've got thousands of people celebrating with us. pic.twitter.com/bEA1bqPs1K

On Monday, this happened:

Dr. Oz on stage with Dean Cain talks about how great the crowd is at the Great American State Fair... so @hicharliecotton pans his camera to reveal quite the opposite. https://t.co/vZ3exnGWS3 pic.twitter.com/4e1ugj7AVw— TMZ (@TMZ) June 29,........

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