Nicolle Wallace could not contain her laughter when commentating on the crowds leaving in the middle of President Donald Trump’s speech at the kickoff for his Great American State Fair.
The Freedom 250 kickoff event was initially supposed to feature a lineup of artists. But Trump canceled the concert series and instead enlisted himself as the headliner after musical artists including Morris Day, Bret Michaels, Martina McBride, Young MC, the Commodores and more all pulled out of the event after facing backlash.
At Wednesday night’s event, videos showed crowds ushering swiftly out of the event as Trump gave his remarks.
“Guess they felt like they had heard that riff before,” Wallace quipped. “Not a great look, though, for a guy, who worries so much about crowd size.”
The host of MS NOW’s “Deadline: White House” also showed a clip of President Trump begging rally goers to turn out for his Fourth of July speech.
“On July 4 we will have the greatest show of all in the National Mall. Your favorite president will be speaking, so please show up,” Trump said. “Because if we have two empty seats, the fake news is going to say we didn’t fill out the arena.”
“He doth protested so much,” she said, unable to contain her laughter. “The idea that we’re the problem. He seems to be the problem when it comes to empty seats. Clearly showing the vulnerability that this exposes — the lack of attendance, the lack of enthusiasm.”
Wallace spoke with The Bulwark’s Jared Poland, as he was on the ground at the event. His tweet went viral Wednesday that depicted an attendee sleeping in the grass during Trump’s speech.
“I think this celebration would have been a lot better had Trump not made himself the center of it, but unfortunately with Donald Trump he’s incapable of doing that,” Poland said. “He wants to be at the center of every bit of this America 250 celebration.”
The journalist also noted that as soon as the president came on most of the crowd started to thin out. After they got their pictures of the president, they started to head out of the fair grounds.
Jimmy Fallon, who only sparingly criticizes the president on his show, made fun of Trump’s turnout, joking the concert ended up being BYOB: “Bring Your Own Band.”
The Freedom 250 event kicked off the 16-day Great American State Fair. The National Mall will be open with activities daily through July 10 with a firework show and another speech from the president set for July 4.
