On the National Mall last week, the President of the United States stood before a half-empty field and did something future historians will study as a portrait of decline. He asked America to show up for its own birthday party. Please come, he begged viewers. If there were two empty seats, he warned, the “fake news” would say he couldn’t fill the event. He was a man reading his own nightmare aloud.
Donald Trump wasn’t wrong about the empty seats. But there were vastly more than two. And like other recent debacles, the dismal turnout for America’s 250th birthday celebrations has become symbolic of the President’s second term.
He was dealt the easiest hand in modern presidential stagecraft. The date for these celebrations was fixed in 1776, and short of the dissolution of the country, no opponent could move it nor scandal cancel it. The national birthday belongs to everyone, and in theory, everyone could be easily rallied to support it. All he had to do was step aside and let America celebrate itself.
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Instead, his “Great American State Fair” has become indivisible from Trump himself, leading even D-List celebrities to cancel their performances for fear of association. The festivities have been so sparsely attended that Fox News (which had hyped it for days) suddenly found other stories to cover. Entire US states decided not to send delegations and left their booths empty, like place settings for guests who’d sent their regrets. It has been, in a word, embarrassing.
