Great American State Fair draws low crowds as Washington hit by extreme heat

The Great American State Fair seemed to attract dozens of attendees ahead of America’s 250-year Fourth of July celebration. Now, it’s attracting no one.Meghan McCain, the daughter of late Arizona Senator John McCain, hosted the “Race 2 Win” quiz show at the sprawling semiquincentennial celebration Tuesday. But a picture of the game stage, as shared by McCain herself, illustrated that nobody had shown up to her event. Instead, McCain’s voice rang out to an empty field, speckled by just a few lonely chairs.“So cool to host @2waytvapp new game show ‘Race 2 Win’ at The Great American State Fair today!” she wrote on X.But even McCain couldn’t be bothered to show up to the event. The pundit’s image was broadcast onto large screens on the enormous stage while she remained in an assumedly climate-controlled room, speaking with participants over Zoom.The event technicians overseeing the show couldn’t be bothered by its technicalities, either. Instead, they streamed McCain’s show as-is on the two vertical monitors that bordered the stage, mangling the image while cutting off the text of a trivia question about the building materials used to construct the Capitol dome due to the altered aspect ratio.Practically every component of Donald Trump’s wildly expensive plan to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary has turned out to be a dud. The $15 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool failed to rid the iconic monument of algae; a multi-week lineup of music acts had to be cancelled after practically every artist pulled themselves from the program; and a fleet of buses carrying a contemporary retelling of American history have failed to make a splash in their journey across the country.The Great American State Fair was supposed to be the centerpiece of the Trump administration’s America 250 celebration, yet even it is more of a potemkin village than a sincere homage. The booths, which offered space for each state to represent its heritage and culture (pet a replica of a bison at the North Dakota pavilion, or walk away with a bag of chips from Maine), were ideologically pitted against the seismic presence of the federal government and Trump’s authoritarian expansion (banners featuring his grim face flank the event, while a small-scale replica of his proposed “Triumphal Arc” sits center stage).The fair also suffered from power outages and dangerous technical failures that included large stage equipment falling behind dancers during rehearsal. But the extreme heat that consumed Washington over the weekend seemed to be the final blow to the expansive celebration: even the thin crowds that did appear to watch the world record-shattering fireworks display were forced to leave the area for several hours due to an unprecedented weather advisory.

Attendance had been thin to Trump’s ‘unbelievable’ event before an increase on Friday – and then the high temperatures swept inEven by Trumpian standards, the event was promoted with intense hyperbole: nothing short, the US president suggested, of the “the most unforgettable birthday party any country has ever seen”.“It’s gonna be great,” Donald Trump proclaimed on the opening night of the Great American State Fair, the centerpiece of the US 250th anniversary celebrations. “It’s gonna be unbelievable.” Continue reading...

A heat wave in Washington, D.C., is making attendance at President Trump’s July 4 festivities even worse. U.S. Capitol Police have already restricted Thursday night’s rehearsal for “A Capitol Fourth Concert” to essential personnel, posting on X that they came to the decision after consulting with the Capitol’s Office of the Attending Physician. “For safety reasons, the public will not be able to attend tonight’s rehearsal concert,” the post read. “Everyone is sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. The National Weather Service is forecasting an extreme heat watch with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees.” The post added that an update will come Friday by 10 a.m. on the status of the full concert, which is scheduled to take place from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday night. Similar warnings are hitting the Great American State Fair, which has already had to cancel a rodeo demonstration scheduled for Thursday night. Attendance at the fair overall has been depressed, with visitors complaining about the weather. U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer had an audience of maybe 25 people when he spoke about tariffs on the main stage Thursday afternoon. Many booths at the fair don’t have air conditioning, leading at least one visitor to overheat, and she said she finally found relief at a baptism tent, where she took a dip to cool down. Great American State Fair goer tells our @JenDelgadoFOX many of the booths she went to today didn't have air conditioning, she overheated, said she saw stars and needed medical attention -- found the baptism tent and took a dip to cool down pic.twitter.com/Smufj0GN8g— Homa Bash (@HomaBashNews) July 2, 2026Even without the heat, the fair is coming across as tacky, with empty booths and a lack of energy. The food is expensive, reviews are abysmal, and people aren’t coming, enraging the president. When it hasn’t been hot, it’s been raining. America’s 250th anniversary was already going poorly thanks to Trump, and now the weather may cement the once-in-a-lifetime event’s status as a failure.

White House officials deleted photographs of crowds at the beginning of Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair, after the president raged at the dismal turnout. “We’re told that the aerial image of the crowds from his rally last week enraged him so much that officials ended up deleting them,” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported Wednesday evening. Dozens of attendees were seen flocking toward the exits during Trump’s commencement address, though the president insisted the event was “packed to the brim.”Photographs of the event showed that there was a crowd, but not a very big one, and certainly not the 45,000 that Trump claimed on social media.Attendance at Trump’s supremely underwhelming Great American State Fair has remained visibly low, as the festivities have been beset by technical difficulties, lame programming, and disappointing weather delays. White House staff are reportedly concerned that Trump’s rally planned for the Fourth of July will spark yet another presidential meltdown.That rally is scheduled to take place outside on the National Mall, on a day temperatures in Washington are projected to reach at least 100 degrees. The rally will be punctuated by a massive fireworks display, currently scheduled to begin at 11 p.m. Unlike in past years, attendees will not be able to bring coolers to help beat the heat.

White House staff are reportedly concerned that Donald Trump’s Fourth of July rally is a recipe for disaster—one that will send the president into yet another meltdown. The remarkably low turnout for Trump’s Great American State Fair has sparked serious worries that the president’s massive rally planned for Saturday will also be a dud, multiple sources told CNN Wednesday.  The rally is scheduled to take place outside on the National Mall, as temperatures in Washington are forecasted to reach a stifling 100 degrees. One official familiar with the event told CNN that there would likely be large groups of people who reserved tickets for Trump’s address but don’t end up attending. Empty seats means that viewers are likely in for another presidential temper tantrum—a sorry celebration for the country’s 250th anniversary. The rally will be punctuated by a massive fireworks display currently scheduled to begin at 11:00 p.m. And unlike in past years, attendees will not be able to bring coolers to help beat the heat. “I do not understand why we are doing this so late,” one White House official told CNN, adding there were still ongoing efforts to fix the timing. “I’m really not sure who thought this was a good idea.”So far, Trump’s Great American State Fair has been supremely underwhelming, and beset by technical difficulties, lame programming, and disappointing weather delays. Trump has raged in the face of bad reviews and lied about the visibly low attendance.Internally, those in Trump’s orbit have begun pointing fingers about the president’s own Fyre Festival (except people actually went to Fyre Festival). “The mistake here was not driving attendance,” one person close to the White House told CNN. “It was an ‘if you build it, they will come’ mentality that failed.”