Fox News airs sparse footage from Trump's 'Great American State Fair'

journalismJul 3, 2026453,443

During Fox News’ live broadcast from President Donald Trump’s “Great American State Fair” on the National Mall, co-hosts Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer praised visible “excitement” while footage behind them showed only sparse crowds as gates opened. DailyKos reports the event has been an attendance disaster since launching, with wide open spaces on the Mall going viral and White House staffers reportedly deleting embarrassing images from social media. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins posted a short clip that avoided crowd shots, but later videos showed the venue nearly empty. Organizers faced other problems: several musicians withdrew from the Freedom 250 concert after the event took on an overtly pro-Trump identity, and some states declined official participation, leaving private groups to assemble booths. A North Carolina booth displayed a Confederate flag, prompting Mt. Olive Pickle Co. to withdraw and Governor Josh Stein to condemn the exhibit. Trump posted on social media claiming the venue was “packed,” but the broadcast imagery undercut that claim and highlighted persistent organizational and reputational challenges for the event.

Aaron Rupar

@atrupar.com

lollllll -- Fox News is now doing super tight shots of the crowd at Trump's state fair to try to conceal how empty it is

209619h ago

excitednitrogen.bsky.social56

Seriously, what can you do there besides ride a Ferris wheel and get dehydrated?

Alan Smithee27

this sequel to "devil in the white city" sucks

escot.bsky.social23

Honestly surprised that Fox News hasn’t AI’d some crowds into their live broadcast for Dear Leader.

EARNED MY SPURS & UNABLE TO CURB MY CUSSING 🐎21

fair goers trying to inch their way into the 12" strip of shade 😂

Emily19

The cameraman's probably terrified if he shoots the empty field he'll end up in a concentration camp.

Lukemaxxing 🏳️‍🌈✈️17

Even with super tight shots it looks pathetic though. It’s funny and sad to watch.

Quoting this

Debrianna Mansini-I’m Spartacus39

The emperor has no clothes cult show

Ian Miles Schlong20

President Streisand Effect out with his latest masterstroke

Dr Gavin Hughes FRHistS FRGS8

Seriously, you get more people at one of our local agricultural shows. And the police will turn up in their police tractor too.

JOY2U2> Book Author 📚🎨💙😉🦆❣️5

how much did frumpy pay those 10 people to show up for a quick spin?

Action Together New Jersey4

Don't you wonder why people who spend their holidays at exclusive country clubs thought they could put on a state fair event?

MB4

It’s shocking anyone is there in the heat. Not many, but there are some.

Suzanne McCain3

Why take a swipe at liberals?

Scott MacFarlane

@macfarlanenews.bsky.social

NEW: A comical collapse of Trump's Great American State Fair Big questions about safety at Trump's July 4 rally Fierce pushback against the Reflecting Pool criminal case Lots of enterprise reporting this morning ===> open.substack.com/pub/macfarla...

3354h ago

Sanho Tree8

What could possibly go wrong?🧵

justbcause55.bsky.social4

I hate to be all conspiratorial; but should we be suspicious about their method for grand jury selection?

Ariana Niko2

The “comical collapse” part would’ve been easy to laugh off by itself. Throw in the safety questions and the Reflecting Pool story, and it stops feeling like one bad news cycle.

Quoting this

Mona Burns8

"White House officials are giving blind quotes to media organizations expressing concern about crowd size [for his July 4 speech] That won’t please Trump either. As MSNOW reported Thursday, “There are serious questions…” about crowd size and whether the White House is in a panic about it."

Mona Burns2

"It feels like they’ll need to make a change today. They truly might need to cancel, shorten or reimagine Trump’s July 4th rally on the National Mall. Let me tick through the reasons why. .." Read this:

The Bulwark

@thebulwark.com

"I showed up about three minutes before, sat in the grass, and I was the only person there when they started." @jaredpoland.bsky.social tells @timmiller.bsky.social about the depressing, prime-time podcast taping he saw at the Great American State Fair:

1736h ago

The Bulwark32

Watch the latest from @timmiller.bsky.social and @jaredpoland.bsky.social on the Great American State Fair: www.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-ame...

Me-Shell, myself and I7

Someone called it a sad state of a fair

Stashes2

More like The Great Depressing Fair

Ms. Misanthrope 🇺🇸

@lilmsmisanthrope.bsky.social

No reporter asked Trump about the Emoluments Clause. His own former White House special counsel Ty Cobb told CNN the conduct is "something the average American should be staggered by." The Wall Street Journal criticized it. Fox News criticized it. Trump said "everybody's profiting."

783h ago

Oliver Willis

@owillis.bsky.social

fox news: check out the "excitement" on the mall for trump's american state fair fox news video: nobody is there.

86Yesterday

Oliver Willis87

contrast: "no kings" rally in washington on the mall in march

The Infinitely Prolonged5

Possibly they don't care because they're professional propagandists, but I hope they feel like morons on camera with that in the background.

En Buen Ora3

okay maybe they aren't physically there but trillions of people are excited for the Great American State Fair, in their hearts

Dave Wakeman2

Tremendous crowds... They are just dressed as blades of grass.

𝙲𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚊𝚗2

I mean obviously with this heat and how dumb it all is the shit is going to be poorly attended but just for transparency sake it looks like the gates open at 10

merlevans.bsky.social1

OMG that woman has the most annoying demeanor! Calm down girl

Quoting this

Oliver Willis136

for people noting the event starts at 10 (doesnt really matter, the mall is more or less open all the time and thats immaterial), here's a shot from 10:33

Joan Stavo-Debauge17

Tout porte à croire que le culte de Trump touche à sa fin

Jason Kuznicki12

The Soviets would at least have conscripted some attendees for the cameras.

Schrödinger's Sneetch Belly7

At what point do the staffers who I guarantee you are currently begging their bosses to stop carrying the shows live from the fair because it's so gd embarrassing finally get heard and win out.

Relevant Ferret If Known7

This is better anti-Trump propaganda than anything we could have produced ourselves.

Hal 100004

It's so bizarre to me that attendance is so low. This is America, God dammit. We turn out in massive droves for *high school football games*. How on Earth do you have an event like this and even the MAGA faithful are like, "Naa, I'm good."

Laurent Lapeyre3

Il y a plus de monde dans ma rue, lors de l' un des épisodes de dome de chaleur à 38° la semaine dernière.

𝕷'𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖘𝖔𝖓 🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈2

Imaginez un évènement organisé par Mamdani. L'endroit serait noir de monde.

Matthew2

God is deadass cursing them.

Justin Baragona

@justinbaragona.bsky.social

"This is pretty hilarious." We certainly agree with you on that, Fox News. Anyway, check out our supercut of Fox's lowlights from their live coverage of Trump's Great American State Fair. zeteo.com/p/dave-portn...

74Yesterday

🖐️ DrAlanT 🎬 📚 📎1

"The humidity will pick up, but won't bother anyone" 👀

Frank Anomaly1

“Thousands are here.” Yeah, thousands of blades of grass.

McSpocky™

@mcspocky.bsky.social

tRump blew $68 MILLION in taxpayer money on a “Great American State Fair” that was basically empty on the National Mall. Fox anchors hyped “thousands of people” while sparse crowd footage played right behind them. Witch trial apologist on stage. Collapsing props. Disaster. tinyurl.com/mr37dm4v

566h ago

dan sinker

@dansinker.com

I think half the attendees at the Great American State Fair are journalists doing stunt essays.

722h ago

Robert Loerzel6

And (as I suggested earlier), there must be some folks showing up just to get pictures and videos of how bad it is.

Phineas3

The overall attendance has to be 80% ironic minimum

ejrfoto1

Taking the over on that.

Bill Madden

@maddenifico.bsky.social

Fox News set up their outdoor onsite studio to deliver maximum humiliation to the corrupt conman. As it's been described, Trump's Great American State Fair looks like a prison yard with grass. 😂🤣

55Yesterday

M 💓🏖️3

Two kinds of people: those that would never go to this & those that would’ve gone but had no extra money these days to spend on outings. The whole event looks sterile and dull. Do they know what a fair is?

Kate2

I don’t understand how this was even supposed to be fun? Just looking at booths of stuff about each state? One ride? Lots of walking across grass? A ton of white?

DMin1

If they want a crowd, the should build a giant Whack-A-Mole box, put Trump, Vance, Rubio, Hegseth, Patel, and Mike Johnson in it and make them alternate popping their heads up through the holes.

Quoting this

kenofseattle5

Absolutely pathetic, just like Trump.

Hemant Mehta

@friendlyatheist.com

More than a thousand Christian missionaries are trying to convert the tens of people at Trump's Great American State Fair. As if the event couldn't get any worse. www.friendlyatheist.com/p/even-the-g...

503h ago

Jim Gaines6

So they think Trump's fairgoers aren't *already* Christian?

GodlessGranny3

They can all convert eachother to eachother's denominations. They should have a great debate on which version of Christianity is the right one.

Mike Rogers2

Isn't that called "preaching to the converted"?

DarhleneZ1

Now, who exactly is persecuting who?

Quoting this

ffrf.org20

Christian nationalism isn't content with influencing government. It wants every public event to double as a revival.

Lindsay Beyerstein11

The only useful service provided by the baptismal font was saving a Trumper from heatstroke.

Really American

@reallyamerican.bsky.social

Even Fox News can't cover up Trump's State Fair disaster, Jeanine Pirro hosted a combative press conference to announce a sketchy Reflecting Pool-related arrest, and part of a stage collapsed during one fair performance today. Here's our evening recap: reallyamerican.substack.com/p/breaking-t...

4917h ago

VƎX Werewolf

@vexwerewolf.bsky.social

If anything we need to encourage them to talk about leftist ideas this way on FOX News and GB News more, because they're able to reach an entire demographic that would never listen to a word we say but some of them will look at these massive oversimplifications and think YEAH I WANT THAT

433h ago

JimmyMadison

@potus4.bsky.social

Every Republican lawmaker is posting a video on their social media of them at the amazing state fair. If you even watch these they all look terrible and empty. These are the best of the best shots. These people are trying to make it look as good as they can just as Fox News is.

3515h ago

scott dagostino

@scottdagostino.ca

Hilarious graphic on FOX News listing the terrifying aims of Democratic Socialists. When they say “for all,” FOX hears “for the people we white-supremacists hate” 😐