What If They Held a 4th And Nobody Showed?

Just point and laugh, kids, just point and laugh (Edith Olmstead at New Republic):

White House staff are reportedly concerned that Donald Trump’s Fourth of July rally is a recipe for disaster—one that will send the president into yet another meltdown. 

The remarkably low turnout for Trump’s Great American State Fair has sparked serious worries that the president’s massive rally planned for Saturday will also be a dud, multiple sources told CNN Wednesday.

The rally is scheduled to take place outside on the National Mall, as temperatures in Washington are forecast to reach a stifling 100 degrees. 

One official familiar with the event told CNN that there would likely be large groups of people who reserved tickets for Trump’s address but don’t end up attending. Empty seats means that viewers are likely in for another presidential temper tantrum—a sorry sight given it will be the country’s 250th anniversary. 

The rally will be punctuated by a massive fireworks display, currently scheduled to begin at 11 p.m. Unlike in past years, attendees will not be able to bring coolers to help beat the heat. 

It's like they're intentionally working to scare your average attendees - the ones who don't want to die from heat stroke - away from the shindig.

Worse, delaying the fireworks until 11:00pm at night is recipe to make people tune out from watching on television. Traditionally, firework shows start at sundown - somewhere around 8:00pm - and wrap up in an hour so the kids won't stay up too late. People will watch the New York and Boston performances - with arguably more entertaining musicians and actors providing stirring patriotic oratory - and ignore trump's planned rally rants that will likely drone into dementia-driven idiocy.

trump's handlers could try to bus in their usual suspects of rally attendees, but you'd think they would have done that to bring in crowds to trump's State Fair event to avoid looking like a disaster this past weekend.

It might not even be a good look for them if they persist on keeping people from bringing their own coolers and drinks, and end up with a sizable number of unconscious or dying victims in the crowd.

So here we are, facing a 4th of July in our nation's capital on a major anniversary where nobody shows.

This wouldn't have happened under President Kamala.