Donald Trump’s recycled religious video message was broadcast to rows of empty seats at the president’s free event to “rededicate” America to God.
Rededicate 250 ran for over eight hours on Sunday at Washington’s National Mall. Billed by organizers as a “National Jubilee Of Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving,” it included worship songs, appearances by religious leaders, and speeches by members of the Trump administration.
The event was organized by the White House-backed Freedom 250, which is holding several events to celebrate the nation’s anniversary over the coming months.
House Speaker Mike Johnson was the main Republican to appear in person, with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth pre-recording video messages screened at the event.
Trump also only appeared on screen, as he was attending the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia on Sunday. He posted in all caps on Truth Social, “I HOPE EVERYBODY AT REDEDICATE 250 IS HAVING A GOOD TIME.”
In the video, Trump read a verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14 that urged people to “humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways.”
However, images captured by Reuters from the event show dozens of empty seats in front of the screens while Trump’s pre-recorded three-minute message was screened, six hours into proceedings.
The video message from Trump aired on Sunday was also the same footage he recorded in April for an event called America Reads the Bible, according to the Associated Press.
The Daily Beast has contacted Freedom 250 and the White House for details on crowd figures.
Washington’s National Mall can hold over a million visitors. According to Politico, 1.2 million people were estimated to have attended Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidential inauguration in 1965, while 1 million attended the Bicentennial fireworks display in 1976. Meanwhile, the National Mall was the site of a large-scale demonstration for women’s reproductive rights with the March for Women’s Lives, which up to a million people attended in 2004.
The location hosts around 32 million visitors each year.
Ahead of Sunday, the Rededicate 250 website said they expected “several thousand attendees” throughout the day.
While no official crowd estimate was immediately available, The Washington Post said Rededicate 250 drew “a crowd of thousands,” a figure echoed by the Associated Press.
Although entry was free, the event’s website stated that all attendees, including children, had to register through an RSVP form.
The live-streamed event showed that crowd numbers fluctuated over the day, though empty seats at the front of the stage were a common sight during performances.
The crowd was sparse at the start of the event, around 10:30 a.m, as footage from the livestream shows.
While the crowd had filled out, empty seats were still visible hours later.
The event took place a month after Trump clashed with Pope Leo XIV and deleted an AI-generated image of himself in a Jesus-like pose.
Trump supporters, meanwhile, called the day a huge success. Teenage pro-Trump influencer Bo Loudon claimed D.C. was “filled to the brim with patriots honoring God,” while Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka wrote on X that there was a “huge crowd.”
