Trump FLIPS OUT online after his 'Great American State Fair' FLOPS, draws painfully small turnout

[0:00] Sometimes the pictures really don't tell the full story because if you look behind us, you see, okay, there are a couple hundred people back there. [0:07] But the truth is when you make your way over here and you're in this lot, you're in a wash of people. [0:13] There are thousands of people here. [0:15] And I'll tell you what, that's with rain, with everything else going on, the fact that it is heightened security just because of the world right now. [0:21] It's really an awesome crowd. [0:23] And it's people that want to be here. [0:27] Don't believe your eyes. [0:29] Don't believe your ears. [0:30] I put on my glasses to get a closer look. [0:32] Like the live shot literally behind all those people saying all those things tells a totally different story from the things coming out of their mouths. [0:40] Hi again, everyone. [0:41] It's 5 o'clock in the East. [0:43] Donald Trump's long-awaited Freedom 250 Great American State Fair went off with a whimper this weekend with what looked like tens, dozens of people showing up for the event, which was plagued with problems, power outages, a shutdown Ferris wheel, [0:58] extreme weather, and the cancellation of a performance by one of the only artists who stood by Donald Trump other than Kash Patel's girlfriend. [1:07] And that was part of Vanilla Ice. [1:10] Needless to say, the less than stellar reviews of the fair and the viral posts about his itty-bitty little crowds have gotten under Donald Trump's skin in a big way. [1:20] Donald Trump posted this response on True Social. [1:22] Quote, 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? [1:31] Oh, my God, I can't believe I'm reading this. [1:35] And everybody loving it. [1:37] The president went on, ask yourself the simple question. [1:40] The president of the United States switched to all caps. [1:43] Quote, do you think that Obama or Sleepy Joe Biden could have done it? [1:47] The answer is in Trump's post, no. [1:50] The answer was like Obama did it last week at the opening of the Obama Center. [1:55] But I guess in this case, Trump has a point. [1:59] Obama has never in his life, like if Obama's motorcades draw bigger crowds for OTRs, trips that aren't even announced. [2:06] But it was all part of a weekend that did little to turn around Donald Trump's political fortunes [2:12] and dispel the belief among Americans that Trump is obsessed on himself and his vanity projects more so than he is on the concerns of the American people [2:23] or his own coalition who are screaming at the top of their lungs about the economy and about a very unpopular war in Iran. [2:32] As the deal to end that war with Iran, one of the main drivers of Trump's cost of living crisis all but collapsed, [2:39] Trump appeared to be more focused on the national monuments slash golf course tour. [2:44] There's now a golf course on the agenda. [2:47] And his apparent plan to plant 47 trees in his own honor, like in honor of him, according to a new reporting in the Washington Post. [2:56] And if you thought it couldn't get any worse, Vice President J.D. Vance bailed. [3:03] He wasn't around to pick up any of the slack or absorb any of the embarrassment saying, oh, they rejected me, not you, Donald. [3:09] Donald, he was promoting his book and he was on a book tour. [3:16] This is all real. [3:18] Donald Trump and his administration embarrassing themselves and our country [3:21] by doubling and tripling down on self-aggrandizement [3:25] as Americans can't afford to pay their bills and fill up their tanks with gas. [3:30] It's where we start the hour, some of our most favorite reporters and friends. [3:33] Scott McFarland's here. [3:34] He's the chief Washington correspondent for Midas Touch. [3:37] Also joining us, New York Times investigative reporter David Ferenthold is back with us. [3:42] And Puck News senior political columnist and national affairs analyst John Heilman is here. [3:46] Heilman, I'll start with you for some framing on this. [3:50] Like, it doesn't read as real. [3:52] I read this and I, and I, and I, and I, like, is this AI? [3:55] Is this really what they're doing? [3:57] And I thought about the book that I know you and I have been through, [4:00] the regime change reporting, where one of the closest people to Donald Trump is this woman, [4:04] Natalie Harp, who helps create this altered reality for Donald Trump. [4:09] But what is, what is the issue here, where, like, he actually thinks that it's his job [4:17] to make up lies about the reflecting pool, put on at taxpayer expense sparsely attended [4:24] celebrations that are so politically poisoned, no normal people want to be a part of them, [4:30] and build things in his own honor when he couldn't even line a frickin' pond? [4:34] You always give me the good questions, Nicole, where it involves, like, some combination of [4:42] speculation, uh, you know, psychoanalysis, and a little tiny little bit of political analysis. [4:50] I, I think Natalie Harp is the, it, I, it, I totally agree. [4:55] I, you know, this is why I come on the show, because it's like, right, that's my strike zone [4:58] right there. [4:58] It's a very small strike zone, but that's my strike zone. [5:01] Um, you know, I keep thinking about the fact that, you know, you made this point about the [5:05] Obama, how Obama did exactly, you know, have brought out, you know, [5:07] you two, and, and Bruce Springsteen, and all these people to, to play, [5:11] this TV Wonder to play, uh, in Chicago last week, and you can't really blame Trump for not [5:16] knowing about that, right? I mean, you can't blame him, because he, I don't think he knows [5:20] about, I don't think he knows about it. Don't you think that's the deal? It's like, Natalie Harp is [5:25] not, is, she, like, turned off all the TVs, like, don't, like, unplug the cable. [5:31] They're not on the networks he watches. They're not on the networks he watches. He's watching [5:36] other networks, and Natalie, and Natalie Harp, the, the Harp, the, uh, the human fax machine, [5:40] the human printer, is not printing out stories, uh, to please the boss about, hey, look at a [5:46] Barack Obama's lineup, right? I think Trump in, I think the bubble of delusion, I mean, look, [5:51] you and I both think that Trump's mental acuity is declining pretty precipitously. We also think [5:55] he has various kind of psychic, uh, things that I'm not qualified to, to, to diagnose seriously, [6:00] but has various kinds of, uh, syndromes and, and pathologies that, that in combination with [6:05] the information bubble that a lot of presidents do get into, right, where they, where they, they [6:10] lose touch with what's really going on out there. And I think that that, that combination is part of [6:16] what explains the other things you're talking about that are more serious things, right? Because [6:20] the reality is that, uh, we did on this show a few weeks ago when Trump had the, the, the drawings [6:26] of the golden ballroom, right? That you thought was replacing the East wing. And the most amazing [6:31] thing about those drawings was not the drawings, was that he had them on his lap and he had invited [6:36] reporters in holding them up to boast about them as if he didn't understand that it was politically [6:43] toxic. And, and the Donald Trump of 2015, 2016, that, that Donald Trump wouldn't have been like [6:50] that, right? I mean, Donald Trump knew his base, knew what working class voters, he knew he had a [6:55] fingertip feel for what voters wanted. That's why he won in 2016. And he still even had it to some [7:00] extent in 2024. Again, you can dislike him all you want. Uh, there's plenty of room for that, [7:04] but he had a fingertip feel for what millions of Americans wanted. I think the fact that he has [7:11] lost that is illustrated in a hundred different examples. This last weekend was one of them, [7:17] the golden ballroom boasting about these pictures as if like somehow this was the thing that was going [7:21] to heal him politically is another sign that again, he's in a profound bubble, somewhat self-created [7:29] somewhat. I think that the product of his own mind, somewhat the product of the circumstances in which [7:35] he, the, the, the velvet prison that he's built around himself and people like Natalie Harp, who knows [7:40] if she actually ever gave him a representative bunch of what the news coverage was, she would be fired if [7:46] not imprisoned. Right. And, and whatever kinds of cognitive decline he's suffering is the kind of [7:53] magic admixture that has led to this period that, and I got to tell you, you got to stop saying this [7:59] thing about how you check to see if it's AI hit the rule. Now, Nicole, like what Jonathan Swan and [8:05] Maggie Haberman, who said, you know, when the white house says something, our presumption is they're lying [8:09] until proven otherwise. I think you have to presume that the most ridiculous things that you see, [8:15] that those things are real until they're proven to be AI, as opposed to the other way around, [8:21] because that is just what we're seeing over and over again. I mean, that the more ludicrous it is, [8:25] the more likely it's true. Yeah. I mean, and look, David, I mean, the times had some phenomenal [8:32] reporting. Um, we had Luke Broadwater on, uh, at the end of the week on Friday, byline was one of the [8:38] bylines on it. I mean, we don't even know how much, um, redecorating of the white house and the [8:45] monuments in the mall that's planned. But I, I, I don't say it facetiously, like he could not [8:50] adequately source a bid to effectively and successfully line the reflecting pool. And [8:57] we think he's going to build an arch through which cars will drive. I mean, that's insane. [9:02] That is absolute insanity. And I, and I wonder if we are really so devoid of checks and balances on [9:09] the public safety side, that he's just going to bulldoze all of DC. Well, one of the, there's two [9:16] interesting things at work here. One is that, you know, every president in their second term gets [9:20] frustrated with their inability to change things domestically. They move to foreign policy where [9:24] they have more free hand. Trump did that. And then it worked in Venezuela. It didn't work in Iran. [9:29] Now he's taken another step inward, which is, he's going to try to change the things within like [9:33] three miles of his house where he does have more power. And he has a very pliant interior department, [9:37] you know, that there are less checks and balances to stop him from doing things on the mall. [9:41] But there's something really interesting at work here, which is that the things that Trump wants [9:44] done the most are often in this case, the things that are done the least well. And the reflecting [9:50] pool is a great example of that. The great American state fair, where I just came back from, is another [9:54] example of that because they get handed out as no bid contracts or they get given to allies or toadies [9:59] or yes men. And they just do it fast and don't ask any questions. Don't do any of their own [10:04] independent thinking. They just want to rush to please Trump and do exactly what he said. And it comes back to [10:09] Biden. It came back to Biden with the reflecting pool. It's now coming back to Biden at the great [10:12] American state fair that nobody underneath him feels like it's to their advantage to take two [10:17] seconds to think about what he said, to push back, to offer alternatives, to even seek competing bids. [10:22] They just want to go as fast as they can. And you see how quickly it sort of turns into them stepping [10:26] on a rake. [10:29] I mean, Scott McFarlane, there is a really sort of macabre apples to apples that you can draw. [10:36] I remember during COVID, he wanted to have a rally. I think it was in Tulsa. And there were COVID [10:43] restrictions in place. He wanted them all overridden. His staff was forced to pack an indoor arena. [10:49] Allies became extremely ill after that event. But because he wanted the room packed and because [10:57] he had a sense that looking like his events were sparsely attended, even in the throes of the deadly [11:04] COVID pandemic, the arena was packed. He has the same insatiable appetite to be feeded. And there was [11:11] nobody there. I mean, what is what does this say about the people around him and their impotence? [11:16] It was indeed Oklahoma in 2020 where that happened. And his fixation on crowd size has been one [11:23] consistent portion of Trump presidency, 1.0 and 2.0. And I feel like all of this was doomed to fail [11:30] at the great American state fair. The second Milli Vanilli canceled. Only bad things happen when [11:37] Milli Vanilli cancels on you. It's going to be a chapter of the story of Trump that's titled [11:43] Milli Vanilli canceled on Trump, but he persevered. Here's the thing, Nicole. I've got an official [11:50] document here. I've got a post-it note that lists all the important dates coming up soon [11:54] on Trump vanity projects. It's put up or shut up time. July 8th, he's going to be in court or his [12:01] Department of Justice will be in court on the slush fund. July 9th, the Department of Justice, [12:06] Nicole, on July 9th has to actually put on paper what it says people did at the reflecting pool. [12:10] That's the deadline to charge people either with minor water touching or some type of felonious [12:16] box cutter assault. Then mid-July, he's got to answer for the tarp on the Kennedy Center. The judge [12:22] wants to know why the tarp is still up there when the tarp's coming down. There's an Epstein file [12:26] deadline this week. Todd Blanche is testifying. All this stuff is going to come back up again and [12:32] again. It's Vanity Project Month in July with or without Milli Vanilli.