Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair has been handed a reality check.
Huge crowds packed the National Mall on Wednesday night to watch the U.S. Men’s National Team beat Bosnia 2-0 and claim a spot in the World Cup Round of 16.
That was in stark contrast to the daytime events on the Mall for Trump’s national state fair, at which attendance has been embarrassingly low despite the president’s claims to the contrary.
A source told CNN that the 80-year-old was livid after seeing pictures of a thin crowd at his 90-minute opening address for the weeks-long event, which is being operated by Freedom 250 to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
The source said that when Trump saw the images, he became furious, and later posted on Truth Social to claim that the Mall had been “packed to the brim” with “at least 45,000 people.”
Images from the Mall during the fair so far have looked underwhelming, with a gentle trickle of people milling around pavilions erected by individual states.
But for Wednesday night’s game, the Mall took on a wildly different personality.
The gentle hubbub was replaced by a glot of boozy USMNT fans, adorned in red and white, throwing cups of beer high into the air as star striker Folarin Balogun scored the opening goal.
Footage of the ecstasy has circulated widely, with interviews with fans on the Mall before the game telling Fox 5 D.C. they had come “for the environment. I came here two weeks ago, and the Mall was packed—for the Australia game—and I wanted to experience it like that again.”
Flags waved, and inflated star-spangled beach balls bounced above the heads of the throng in footage gathered by DRM News.
“The mistake here was not driving attendance,” an unnamed source close to the White House told NBC News, referencing the daytime element of the fair. “It was an ‘if you build it, they will come’ mentality that failed.”
“I do not understand why we are doing this so late,” another White House official told CNN. “I’m really not sure who thought this was a good idea.”
“President Trump is ensuring that America gets the spectacular 250th birthday it deserves—and Freedom 250 will execute on the president’s historic vision,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told CNN.
The Daily Beast has reached out for further comment.
