President Donald Trump has insisted his speech at the Great American State Fair Wednesday was “packed to the brim” with 45,000 attendees, despite photographs from the event undermining the claim.
No stranger to a dispute over crowd sizes, having begun his first term by sparring with the media over the attendance figures for his inauguration, Trump took to Truth Social Thursday night to talk up his latest appearance in Washington, D.C.
“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.”
Trump provided no source for the 45,000 figure and his version of events was contradicted by pictures from the rally, which offered little evidence of anything like that number of revellers present.
Video posted on social media also clearly showed people walking away from Trump with their backs to him while he was still speaking.
The president used his address on the National Mall to declare: “America is back… A short time ago we were a dead country. We were dead.
“Now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world. We’re respected by everybody. Nobody’s laughing at us anymore.”
In its coverage of the speech, The Washington Post, for one, wrote: “The crowd thinly covered an area about the length of the National Museum of American History, smaller than some summer outdoor movie screenings.”
NBC News estimated the size of the turnout as “more than 1,000,” perhaps only inadvertently damning with faint praise.
The event in question is taxpayer-funded and intended as a patriotic celebration of the United States in the year it marks the 250th anniversary of it securing its independence from colonial Britain, featuring displays on historical, cultural and military themes and pavilions representing each of the 50 states.
In practice, the State Fair has taken on a distinctly Trumpian flavor, with MAGA merchandise sold widely across its grounds, a model of the president’s forthcoming “Arc de Trump” erected and a Ferris wheel carrying his “America 250” branding.
The organizing committee had intended for the fair to open with a concert featuring a number of throwback pop stars, only for the likes of Poison frontman Bret Michaels, country singer Martina McBride, Young MC, Morris Day and the Time and the Commodores to all drop out, claiming they had been misled about the partisan nature of the occasion.
With only Vanilla Ice, Flo Rida and a handful of others still committed, Trump preferred to headline the opening himself, attacking the refuseniks as overpaid and talentless in the process.
The pavilions have also proven a difficulty for the organizers, with some Democratic-led states declining to send a delegation to dress theirs, citing concerns over cost and, in some cases, the political takeover of the fair.
That has left the committee to decorate the booths for them, leading to some decidedly lacklustre results, with Maine’s going viral for featuring only empty armchairs and walls decorated with broad facts about the Pine Tree State and its famous lobsters.
