A storm, overpriced food and a sad ferris wheel: inside Trump’s dreadful state fair | Donald Trump

I’ve been to some fairs that were disappointing. There was one in a small town in the north-west of England; The main attraction here was a small slide that you went down on a burlap sack: the guy who owned the slide had forgotten to bring the sacks, so my sister and I went down on a t-shirt.

Another time I won the grand prize at bingo at a village fete at a place called Longton. It was a whiskey decanter with a bottle of whiskey. I was 11 years old, the decanter was broken and the older kids took the whiskey. Recently, at a fair in Iowa, I saw two farmers fighting over whose pumpkin was bigger.

That kind of exposure probably means I’m better equipped than most to see the possibility of Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair, but even given my vast bad fair experience, Trump National Mall sounds absolutely terrible.

MS Now “A pretty embarrassing fiasco” wrote. The decision was a “huge fiasco” Slate. “Simply put, miserable,” The New Republic reignedUSA Today is in question Witnessing the failure of Trump’s fair is “like watching your high school bully host a party that no one is attending.”

What makes this so bad?

First of all, very few people seem to go. The second was the fair’s signature (rather small) Ferris wheel. Annoyed by power outages first day. Despite organizers’ claims that 56 states and territories would be represented at the event, each with their own booth. refused to participate due to cost.

The opening ceremony was planned to be a musical extravaganza, featuring acts such as Martina McBride, Bret Michaels, The Commodores, Morris Day and the Time, Young MC, Flo Rida, but many of these artists withdrew, saying they were unaware the event would have a political tone.

Instead, opening night attendees got a performance from Trump: specifically, a campaign-style rally at which Trump made his usual claims that the United States is “the warmest country anywhere in the world.” (Ironically, the Virginia booth at the fair was closed on Tuesday due to extreme heatand the fair itself I had to close early On the second day due to the storm.)

Things got worse when the Confederate flag came out had to be removed caused one of the sponsors to leave a booth at the fair. Then there was more negative publicity as people learned how much was going on. the cost of some things At the event: $25 for pretzels, $23 for turkey legs, $9 for lemonade.

In this context, Fox News boldly tried to put a positive spin on the fair, such as the White Star Line claiming that people had a very enjoyable four days at sea before the Titanic hit the iceberg. The channel even broadcast live from the fair on Monday; Its purpose was to support the event. But as a journalist Aaron Rupar documentedAll that was achieved was to prove that very few people attended.

So what did we learn? Perhaps the moral is this: Don’t try to throw a big celebratory fair. a historically unpopular president. Or: If you’re going to host a fair, make sure it’s a) good and b) doesn’t have a racist flag on display.

The fair is bigger than the fairs I went to in my childhood. But do you know? At least these were fun. And it’s cheap. The sack/t-shirt slide costs just 20p. Was the scar on my knee caused by the friction that caused the shirt to tear? This will last a lifetime.