President Donald Trump woke in a fury on Monday morning and immediately launched into an angry rant about his state fair flop.
The Great American State Fair, delivered by Freedom 250, Trump’s event organization, kicked off last week and was bogged down by issues from the outset.
Trump, it appears, noticed the resulting criticism. “Do you think people appreciate what a fantastic job we did in building and operating the Great American State Fair at the National Mall, packed with happy people, and everybody loving it?” he opened his 6:27 a.m. Truth Social post.
He added: “Ask yourself this simple question, ‘DO YOU THINK THAT OBUMA OR SLEEPY JOE BIDEN COULD HAVE DONE IT?’ THE ANSWER IS NO!”
Trump has referred to former president Barack Obama as “OBUMA” before, including in a post earlier this month attacking the Democrats’ Iran nuclear deal.
His fair, meanwhile, struggled to get off the ground after opening on Wednesday. Power cuts on the first day knocked out the food hall, melting ice cream, while generator problems briefly shut down the Ferris wheel.
A series of performers also pulled out before the event. Vanilla Ice, who did not join the exodus of artists canceling their shows, ended up having his own performance at the fair canceled anyway because of bad weather.
The problems kept coming. Extreme heat and rain forced organizers to temporarily close the fair on Sunday afternoon. When they announced the shutdown on a digital billboard, organizers urged attendees to check for updates on the social media channels of “Freeedom 250”—misspelling the organization’s name with an extra E—prompting a fresh wave of online ridicule.
Throughout the event, questions have also swirled over attendance, with Reuters photographs showing sparse crowds even as Fox News hosts insisted there were “thousands” of visitors on the National Mall despite criticism from skeptics.
Trump kicked off the event with a MAGA-style rally last week. All 50 states were supposed to be represented with a booth, but some opted out due to the high cost to taxpayers or the inability to secure sponsors for a dedicated area. Others had chosen not to attend after the supposedly nonpartisan event suddenly seemed political with Trump’s opening rally.
Trump said that the fair marked the beginning of America’s new “Golden Age” and promised even bigger festivities on July 4, when he is slated to give another speech. After footage showed scant attendance the next day, Trump logged on to Truth Social to self-soothe.
“The Crowd was incredible last night, packed to the brim — At least 45,000 people were there, with a huge Television and online audience,” he wrote. “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.”
