An MS NOW host struggled to contain her laughter as she discussed the president’s unhappiness about the small number of people who turned out for his big event in D.C.
“The viral posts about his itty-bitty little crowds have gotten under Donald Trump’s skin in a big way,” Nicole Wallace told network viewers Monday after playing footage of sparse crowds at the president’s Freedom 250 Great American State Fair in the capital over the weekend.
“Don’t believe your eyes, don’t believe your ears,” she chuckled. “I put on my glasses to get a closer look,” she added, remarking that the numbers looked more like “tens, dozens of people” rather than the thousands Trump, 80, was presumably hoping for.
The fair opened on the National Mall on June 25 as the marquee draw of Trump’s program for the country’s 250th birthday, kicking off a 16-day run Thursday built around a rodeo, a 110-foot Ferris wheel, and pavilions for the 50 states and territories.
The trouble began even before the festivities, with several musicians walking away from the lineup after objecting that the event had become too political, while seven states with Democratic governors opted out of participating.
As the event went on, electrical outages shut down food vendors and melted ice cream, while heat and thunderstorms pushed organizers to close the grounds at various points over the weekend.
Trump took to Truth Social on Monday to insist things could not have gone better. “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 wrote.
“Ask yourself this simple question, ‘DO YOU THINK THAT OBUMA [sic] OR SLEEPY JOE BIDEN COULD HAVE DONE IT?’” he added. “THE ANSWER IS NO!”
Wallace could barely hold it together when she read out Trump’s defense of the event. “I can’t believe I’m reading this,” she said, noting that former President Barack Obama had, in fact, drawn sizable crowds to an entirely separate event last week.
She then tore into the bigger picture at play. “It was all part of a weekend that did little to turn around Donald Trump’s political fortunes and dispel the belief among Americans that Trump is obsessed with himself and his vanity projects more so than he is on the concerns of the American people,” Wallace said.
She added that “his own coalition” has lately been “screaming at the top of their lungs about the economy and about a very unpopular war with Iran.”
Trump’s fair comes as he is taking a battering in the polls over the soaring cost of living, which his war with Iran has exacerbated. He also faces intense backlash from within his own party over his efforts to secure a lasting end to the conflict.
A survey by NPR, PBS News, and Marist, taken June 8 to 11, put the president’s approval at just 36 percent—the worst of his current term—with his marks on the economy at a personal low as voters stew over grocery and gas prices.
Costs have climbed since American and Israeli forces first hit Iran on Feb. 28, starting a conflict that has sent energy costs soaring and shockwaves rippling across the global economy. The chaos has helped hand Democrats an almost 7-point lead on the national congressional ballot ahead of November’s midterms.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
