Donald Trump began his trip to Turkey for a NATO summit with an outdated call for registrations for the poorly attended 250th anniversary celebrations.
About twenty minutes before Trump, top Cabinet officials, and close White House aides like Natalie Harp took off on Air Force One, the president posted several glossy videos to Truth Social.
In one, he advertised Freedom 250, the White House’s politicized version of the non-partisan America250 Commission that Congress formed a decade ago. However, included in that video is a request to register—last month.
“Register to Attend,” it reads, along with a link to the website. “Wednesday, June 24, 2026.”
On that night, Trump, 80, kicked off the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, only for attendees to head for the exits as he was speaking.
The video, like the website for the fair’s opening ceremony, promotes “military flyovers” on the 24th. The video also shows the U.S. Marine Band performing, as it did on opening night.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The bulk of the fair is over, since it wraps up on Friday. Tickets are still available.
Trump has been obsessing over the crowd sizes at the fair, which was marred by subpar attendance, thanks in part to several states not participating, as well as a heat wave. Lightning storms on the night of Trump’s July 3 also proved to be a major disruption.
Trump followed his call for registrations with a post boasting about the might of the U.S. military, bragging that “no other nation can do what we do” and pronouncing that the military “has never been more powerful.”
“Our Military’s unmatched POWER was on full display during our Celebration of 250 Years of American Independence and, like our Country, the WAR DEPARTMENT has never been ‘HOTTER,’” he proclaimed, before urging Congress to pass Reconciliation 3.0 and the SAVE America Act.
Trump is set to attend a series of NATO meetings over two days in Ankara. While in Turkey, he will also meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The president was spotted exiting the White House on Monday night before boarding his brand new Air Force One, which was gifted to him by the government of Qatar.
On Monday, with 34-year-old Truth Social facilitator Harp on board, Trump also posted highlights from his trip last week to the newly-dedicated Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota. Not included was his awkward interaction with an artifically-generated version of the 26th president, who is a progressive icon.
Another video showed Trump on Air Force One, which is now the Qatari-gifted luxury jet that seems to have fake books. Trump hasn’t said how much the cost to taxpayers was to make the plane acceptable for travel, but the Air Force indicated it was less than $400 million.
While in Ankara, the president is expected to inform Erdoğan that he is prepared to restore Turkey’s access to F-35 stealth fighter jets, reversing a ban Trump himself instituted in 2019 on national security grounds.
Ahead of the summit, administration officials like NATO ambassador Matthew Whitaker have praised Trump for largely getting member nations last year to agree to spend five percent of their GDP on defense over the next ten years.
“What we accomplished last year in The Hague now has to turn into real capabilities,” he said. “The United States is leading the way. We expect others to follow us and follow our lead.”
