Transcription
And Chris sort of alluded to this, as did I, just how embarrassing it is for Donald Trump. And I don't know if you've been following how things are going at Trump's Great American State Fair that is happening here in Washington D.C., but we definitely have been. This was the scene on Tuesday when there were actually more people in the band on stage than there were in the crowd watching them. That's not the ratio you obviously want.
But things really didn't get much better from there. All week, there were very sparse crowds at this event, thanks in part to the absolutely bizarre entertainment choices the Trump team booked for the affair. Like, say, and this is one of my favorites because it's so strange, this moment when the guy who used to co-host Ted Cruz's podcast seemed to defend the Salem witch trials in an apparent debate with someone who I'm guessing is about 10 years old.
"But the one area where the Salem witch trials went a little far is, I would say they weren't organized enough. So you had these, like, random judges, you know, kind of burning these ladies. I don't know if they were guilty or not, but I think more if it were more formalized, to build up a little bit more, maybe with like a grand inquisitor or something, that would have been a better way to do it. I really, if you had..."
I don't know what you watched there. I don't know what I watched there either, but I do know that the person he is talking to, if you couldn't see them very well, about again, random judges kind of burning ladies, his words, not mine, is definitely a child. Now, in this video, you can also see the people who gather to watch them. And as bizarre as that was to watch, it may have also had the biggest crowd of any event I've seen at this particular fair. There were at least, I mean, dozens, a dozen more than a dozen people there watching that spectacle, maybe more.
But things haven't improved since then. I mean, here was the scene earlier today when the stage actually started to fall apart and nearly crushed a group of. I mean, the whole thing has been quite an unmitigated disaster. And the level of embarrassment for Trump has been compounded by the fact that his favorite news channel has been broadcasting live from the event all week, showing just how sparsely attended it really was.
Now, in the next clip, I want you to pay very close attention to the live images of the National Mall behind... "WE ARE COMING TO YOU LIVE TONIGHT FROM THE NATIONAL MALL. LIVE WITH YOU AGAIN FROM THE GREAT AMERICAN STATE FAIR. TRUMP IS THROWING THE BIGGEST PARTY RIGHT IN D.C. FESTIVITIES ARE IN FULL SWING IN WASHINGTON FOR AMERICA'S 250th BIRTHDAY. WE'RE CELEBRATING ALREADY AT THE GREAT AMERICAN STATE FAIR. MAN, WE'VE GOT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE CELEBRATING THIS BIRTHDAY WITH US, TOMMY. PATRIOTS FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTRY ARE GATHERING HERE ON THE NATIONAL MALL."
And sometimes the pictures really don't tell the full story. Because if you look behind us, you see, okay, there are a couple hundred people back there. But the truth is, when you make your way over here and you're in this lot, you're in a wash of people. "Good afternoon. Perhaps now the closing bell is here. We're going to get more people coming out here now that work is done. I'm going to check out the fair. You have a good day. All right. See you soon."
I really don't know if my favorite part there was Jesse Watters saying it's the biggest party in D.C., or the claim that sometimes the pictures really don't tell the full story when we can all actually see the sparse crowd that is happening behind while he's talking.
Now, the reason I'm telling you this is not just to make fun of Donald Trump. The reason I'm telling you about it is because Donald Trump's celebration of America's 250th birthday is, in many ways, a reflection of the Trump administration itself: a bizarre, two-bit, right-wing circus that is deeply unpopular with the American people. And just like the Trump administration itself, this event is also rife with corruption.
Now, in order to put on this celebration, Trump is using $68 million of taxpayer money. At least some of that money is being paid to a company called Event Strategies Incorporated. It's run by a group of Trump allies, and it's the same company responsible for organizing Trump's Ellipse Rally on January 6th. We've talked about them before. We don't know how responsible they are for the $68 million of your tax dollars going towards this event, but so far, that money has paid for a janky Ferris wheel plagued by power outages, a couple of tents with chairs in them, a Temu version of Trump's planned arch, which appears to be falling apart and seems like it's being held together with a slapdash sealant job, and of course, some bizarre entertainment, half of which seems to just be Trump officials sitting on stage basically filling the time.
So, how much of that $68 million actually went to the state fair, and how much did Event Strategies Incorporated get to keep for themselves? We don't actually know right now. The New York Times reached out to Event Strategies Incorporated, who declined to tell them how much money they are being paid. They later said the firm was making a profit of 3.5% on that payment, which we could see what that meant. And the Trump-backed organization running the event declined to say how much the events thus far have actually cost to put on in total.
But it actually gets worse. Because that $68 million in taxpayer money is not the only money going to this event. Trump's organization also solicited donations to help pay for this half-assed celebration. And a new report released today by Congressman Jared Huffman alleges that some of those donors were misled about where their money was actually going. The report details allegations describing how donors intended to give money to the non-partisan, congressionally approved organization set up long before Trump took office to celebrate America's 250th anniversary. But instead, they were steered to Trump's initiative under false pretenses.
"...of the White House-backed groups, including its routing number and account number. So a gift solicited in the name of the nation's nonpartisan birthday commission could thus serve the president's priorities. It's quite, it is quite something."
So this Trump-packed organization not only spent taxpayer money, according to that report, they might have defrauded donors as well. And all of that is to say nothing of the apparent corruption we saw from the Trump administration in the lead-up to this event. Remember, Trump handed out all kinds of no-bid contracts for various repairs to D.C. landmarks, which he said were necessary for this July 4th celebration. Instead of going through the normal process for hiring contractors, which is therefore very much a reason, the Trump administration just started handing out those contracts to companies of their choosing without competitive bids, ensuring a fair price for taxpayers. For example, the company already building Trump's big ballroom got another $17 million contract to repair a couple of fountains. Another company got a $5 million contract to cover some horse statues in gold. And of course, there were the multiple no-bid contracts handed out to clean and repair the reflecting pool. And we all know how well that turned out.
Which brings me to the other way that Trump's 250th celebration has become the ultimate reflection of how he's running the country. Because this whole gritty saga has now reached the point where Donald Trump has weaponized the Justice Department for his own political purposes. Today, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., none other than former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, announced that her office is bringing felony charges against a former U.S. Olympian, a man that the Trump administration is accusing of vandalizing the reflecting pool.
There he is. He's a former Olympic canoeist. Now, you may remember that after Trump's reflecting pool renovation started literally coming apart at the seams, Trump blamed the whole thing on vandals, despite presenting zero evidence to support his claim. Park police then started arresting people who went to touch the reflecting pool's peeling surface, including former Olympic canoeist, a guy named David Hearn, who said he just reached into the pool to see what the peeling liner felt like. Now, the Trump administration is charging him with a felony count of destruction of property. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison.
And listening to Jeanine Pirro try to defend these charges... "Well, was the sealant already partially removed? Did he rip it back? He just described in detail because he maintains that it looks the same as it did before he arrived. That's his...? You know, I'm not going to get into the evidence. There was an effort, a violent effort, to rip up the sealant from the bottom of the pool. Did he have any tools or was it just his bare hands? Right now, we believe it's his bare hands, both hands. So does that indicate in your belief that it was probably damaged before, or do you believe that he... Oh, he damaged it further. But do you..."
"THIS IS A PROBLEM. YOU KNOW, OVER A THOUSAND JANUARY 6TH. ARE YOU REALLY TALKING ABOUT JANUARY 6TH? I'M NOT. OKAY, WHO'S NEXT? NOT YOU."
The New York Times doesn't want to talk about the fact that this administration pardoned more than a thousand rioters who destroyed our nation's capital. You just saw her say, "I'm not talking about January 6th." But she sure was eager to go after a former Olympian who they allege violently pulled on some peeling pool liner with both hands. I don't even know how you do that.
The way Trump has handled this 250th anniversary is kind of the perfect encapsulation of everything that we have seen from this president over the last year and a half. The unpopularity, the poor execution, the focus on Trump and his ego, the rampant corruption and cronyism, the weaponization of justice. It's, in some ways, the story of Donald Trump's presidency, a story we're still getting new details about every day, seemingly every hour, it seems.
Now, in their bombshell new book, Regime Change...