Organized by the Donald Trump-associated Freedom 250 group, the Great American State Fair launched on Washington, DC’s National Mall on June 25 and continues through July 10. The event is Trump’s MAGA-themed celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary, but according to Talking Points Memo (TMP), even MAGA Republicans and Trump supporters are feeling disappointed by it.
TMP’s Josh Kovensky, in an article published on the 4th of July, reports, “As I entered the Great American State Fair on Monday, I saw a red-faced older gentleman, looking upset. ‘I’m mad at Trump!’ he exclaimed, adding the event didn’t resemble any fair he had been to before…. He was far from alone in having that reaction to the Great American State Fair, which is taking up the National Mall with a tiny model of Trump’s triumphal arch, broken air conditioning, sagging tarps, and more for the next few weeks.”
Kovensky adds, “Many of those at the Fair seemed to be a mix of confused and underwhelmed by the whole thing. In other ways, it was like a microcosm of the modern conservative movement’s vision of America: lots of God, a warped view of the country’s values, much of it a scam.”
Many liberals, progressives, Democrats, Never Trump conservatives and libertarians in Washington, DC have been avoiding Trump’s Great American State Fair, as they find the MAGA themes off-putting and resent the idea that MAGA has the market cornered on patriotism. But according to Kovensky, even MAGA Republicans are saying that the event isn’t going well.
Kovensky describes the booths at the Great American State Fair, noting the MAGA and Christian nationalist themes.
“A ‘Great Awakening’ booth had books and DVDs on the essential fakeness of the COVID pandemic, the country’s Christian founding, and more,” Kovensky explains in TPM. “My friend and I stopped to speak with an attendant at the stall; she immediately began to try to convert us. She asked if we really knew what would happen once we died; I replied that I didn’t think anyone knew the answer to that question. Her eyes now burning, she told us that she knew, asked our names, and started to pray for us. Once she asked if we could repeat after her that Jesus Christ was our lord and savior, we walked away.”
Kovensky continues, “The whole thing veered from strangely funny to unsettling to deadening. Another booth was for AMAC, the Association of Mature American Citizens. It’s the conservative AARP; among other things, they support raising the minimum eligibility age for Social Security…. We went into another booth that exhibited the work of an artist who made stylized images of American cities and monuments. It wasn’t immediately obvious, but he also seemed to be a Christian nationalist.”