USA Today's review of Trump's Great American Shit Show. "repellent schlock"

[Botany]

Last edited Tue Jun 30, 2026, 04:46 PM - Edit history (1)

My apologies to DUer Uncle Joe who had posted this same USA Today article before I posted it.

Trump's Great American State Fair is a fabulous flop | Opinion
In the heat wave that has consumed most of America, I am cooled by the
country’s frosty reception of the fair, and shamelessly drunk on schadenfreude.

****************
The food is expensive, nobody is attending it, it is tacky, there are no places to sit down
to eat your expensive food, and he has armed members of the National Guard patrolling the
grounds.

Btw it will be 104 on Thursday and Trump is giving the key note address on the 4th of July.

*************

“ This spectacle on the National Mall in Washington, DC, part of Trump’s Trump-centric celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, is like watching your high school bully host a party that no one attends. It’s a daily humiliation for a wildly unpopular president who coopted what should be a unifying national celebration and turned it into repellent schlock.”

Snip

In a social media post on June 29, Trump ‒ who is definitely not mad ‒ wrote: “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, and everybody loving it? Ask yourself this simple question, ‘DO YOU THINK THAT OBUMA OR SLEEPY JOE BIDEN COULD HAVE DONE IT?’ THE ANSWER IS NO!”

No, I don’t think those two other presidents ‒ or any other past president ‒ could’ve pulled off such a feat. Because I don’t think any previous leader would have made the nation’s semiquincentennial celebration all about himself, or been foolish enough to promote his self-centered celebration as the greatest event in history, setting the stage for inevitable failure.

Up until Trump, our presidents have not been full-blown narcissists who ruin everything they touch. They haven’t divided the country so sharply, or so wholly ignored their own unpopularity and proceeded as if they’re God’s gift to America.

Snip

He has spent outlandish amounts of our money “beautifying” Washington, DC, with projects nobody asked for, from his absurd White House ballroom to his cartoonishly messy and algae-coated refurbishing of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. And he is doing these things not for us, but for himself, driven by a desire to attach his name to all things relating to America’s 250th anniversary.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/06/30/great-american-state-fair-trump-attendance/90741971007/

[Biophilic]

1. I suspect that trump's name will be for ever linked to the 250 anniversary.

Just not in a complimentary way.

I believe, and fervently hope, that he and his people will stand for all that needs to be addressed and corrected, in order to move our country and its people forward, “ in order to form a more perfect union”.
I’m 80. I don’t expect to live to see it, but I will support in any way I can. In spite of everything, in spite of those greedy imbeciles in Washington, I still believe in my country and what it could and will stand for.

[LR3]

3. I think it will be linked to two things far more strongly

1 - Corruption. Insane amounts of corruption about which the GOP bravely looked the other way
2 - Epstein. Epstein Epstein Epstein.

[Botany]

4. You are correct in the corruption angle but also the corruption of our legal system, our financial systems,

and our electoral system too. The man should have been in jail in the 1980s for the
millions of dollars of Russian money he laundered through his NYC real estate.

[dave99]

13. Well 'trump' is a curse word now

[Haggard Celine]

26. He is a curse on our country and much of the world.

I hope it gets lifted before too much longer.

[ToxMarz]

18. I don't think the 250 Anniversary will be given any more thought in the future as it is today

Nobody but Trump and the media are talking or thinking about it and once its over and Trump and the media shut up about it no one will ever think about it again. Like it never happened. I remember the 200 Anniversary and it was special. Partly because it was all inclusive and not a narcissist vanity event, and because before that we didnt have to have a big celebrations at every minor milestone in time. We could have lived just fine with a 200th anniversary celebration and then a 300th. Make it a once in a lifetime event.

[Easterncedar]

2. Oh my yes

"In the heat wave that has consumed most of America, I am cooled by the
country’s frosty reception of the fair, and shamelessly drunk on schadenfreude."

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh! Very nice.

[Danmel]

5. I just want to hear him try to say semiquincentennial

[wnylib]

6. All the pundits and most of us here at DU

comment on how Trump's 250 celebration is tacky and poorly attended. But very few talk about how that's the point. He cut corners on entertainment, construction of booths, places to sit, etc. in order to keep the rest of the funds. He ser up cage fights in order to make money off of them.

Then there is the fact that Trump's tastes are innately tacky.

So he puts on tacky programs, makes it all about himself to gratify his insatiable ego, and uses the opportunity to grift.

It was.never about a grand celebration of the country. It was always about sham, cheap programs as fronts for Trump to spew political propaganda about himself, and get attention and money.

[erronis]

8. He wants it to be tacky to help degrade the image of the US. Part of the plan hatched in Moscow

and supported by the rich US oligarchs also.

The most tacky thing he did was to marry that last wife.

[wnylib]

14. That might be true, but I'm not cpmpletely convinced, although

I know that it's what many people believe.

I there are some things that Trump intentionally degrades out of envy (Kennedy Center) or out of vengeance due to past experiences (mostly people). But I think that a lot of the time his destruction of things is a by product of his totally self-serving greed for money and power. He values nothing but himself, power, and money, so if what he does destroys a physical object, a tradition, someone's life, or the lives of huge numbers of people, he doesn't give a damn, other than feeling a sadistic, conquering glee at having hurt people.

Since he has no values, he does not care about whether he destroys the nation, its treasures, traditions, or people. He only cares about whether he feels personally hurt or challenged. So he destroys people and things when he or his projected image is personally threatened or challenged, but not for any ideological belief that he must destroy democracy. He destroys democracy principles and values because they are in the way of him having absolute power for himself over everyone and everything. It is always personal with Trump.

He destroys DOJ because they charged and prosecuted him for crimes. He destroys the FBI because they are part of DOJ and did the investigation of him and of his J6 thugs. Destroying them gives him vengeance and more personal power to control those agencies.

He put his name on the Kennedy Center because he wants to have JFK's popularity and respect. It bothers him that another president in his lifetime had such popularity and respect that a memorial was created for him. JFK had qualities that Trump envies, so he felt compelled to identify with him and usurp his memorial.

He certainly is compromised in his relationship with Putin, and Putin has used and manipulated him as a stooge for Putin's goals regarding the destruction of the US. But Trump's attachment to Putin is a love/hate one. Putin is a daddy figure to Trump, tough and ruthless like Fred Trump was with Donald. Trump is eager to please such a strong guy, just as he wanted to please Fred and get his approval. At the same time, Trump wants limitless power over other people to have his own way all the time, free of obligations and restraints. He wants to be his own person, which Fred never allowed. So Donald reenacts with Putin the relationship he had with Fred.

[FakeNoose]

27. Totally agree - this is just one more grift for Chump without an ounce of sincerity in him

[wyn borkins]

12. wnylib words most-worthy of repetition

It was never about a grand celebration of the country. It was always about sham

cheap programs as fronts for Trump to spew political propaganda about himself

and to get attention and money.

[D_Master81]

7. You can tell Trump was heavily involved

Anything this poorly planned and executed you just know Trump was heavily involved. No person that actually plans festivals like this wouldve put this shit show on. It looks like something a person that doesn’t go to a county fair thinks a county fair is like.

[live love laugh]

9. Do you think he cares? He DGAF. He'll just steal more while the yabber continues.

If the critics do upset him he’ll pocket more money in self serving revenge.

[GiqueCee]

10. Sooner or later...

... even his most ardent brain-dead supporters will come to the realization that Trump is a virulent disease for which there is only one cure.

[dave99]

15. it way past too late now

[Ray Bruns]

16. I'll take that bet!

[warmfeet]

20. MAGA IS MAGA FOR VERY GOOD REASON.

They follow the leader regardless of evidence, critical thinking, or any type of reason. They have invested their very lives in this belief. This will not change.

[calimary]

11. I just read this to my husband.

BOTH of us give it two-thumbs-up - which means FOUR thumbs up, if you count correctly, which - judging from his pronouncements about it - he is unable to do.

That is, assuming honesty has anything to do with it.

[Ray Bruns]

17. "Trump is giving the key note address on the 4th of July"

Oh god, please let it happen around 2pm. The heat index should be around 104.

[efhmc]

19. And another thing: Is that nasty tarp still up?

[Skittles]

21. good article

am curious though why the link to "lining his or some friends pockets" goes nowhere

[Cha]

22. Delicious Schadenfreude! That's what's

"delicious"!

Ohh PEDO Fuckedface is gonna be mad.



Mahalo, Botany! ☮️💙🌈🌊🍀🕊️

[Botany]

23. The only question is how he is gonna blame

Biden/Obama?

The failure of his Great America Shit Show
has to be killing him.

D.C. mid summer, tacky crap, and that
@ least 70% of Americans hate him,
this has to be killing him.

[Cha]

24. PEDO's begged for every ounce of

hate.

I bet his Puppeteer, Putin, likes him & Nazi boy Miller. Oh, and Natalie Harp.

Trump, 80, Spotted on Rainy Day Outing With Blonde Aide, 34

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-80-spotted-on-rainy-day-outing-with-blonde-aide-34/

[electric_blue68]

25. USA Today author: "shamelessly drunk on schadenfreude"😄😄😄 Re how bad the 250 Fair is.