The Great American State Fair could be the best Trump spectacle yet

We mustn’t let the policy whiplash of the new administration’s first few months distract from what could be the best Trump spectacle yet: the Great American State Fair which will descend on the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Memorial Day 2025 and conclude on July 4, 2026, when the United States of America turns 250 years old.

In the very early days of his second stint as president, I listened to Trump lay out his vision for America and was struck with a thought so brilliant, it turns out Trump had already had the same idea himself.

“The golden age of America begins right now,” Trump said in his inaugural address. “During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America first… And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous and free.”

“A golden age of America.”

The phrase brought to my mind visions of Gatsby-esque decadence entwined with McDonald’s Golden Arches. And then — a golden lightbulb. Obviously we must bring back the world’s fair. What better way to prove to the rest of the globe that America is back in a Big Way than by making everyone else come all the way to the U-S-of-A so we can rub their noses in our achievements?

That is, after all, what I think world’s fairs were traditionally all about. My mother attended the 1964 New York World’s Fair as a nine-year-old. She recalls taking a bus from her grandparents’ house in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, to the big city because the fair “was a big deal.” She also remembers being “exposed to different cultures” and thinks the event may have even inspired her love of foreign foods — something that forces me to consume way-too-hot Thai cuisine on Mother’s Day and her birthday each year.

“It’s the biggest thing I’d ever seen, coming from a small town,” my mom told me. It was “eye-opening.” The world’s fair “expanded my horizons,” she added, and “inspired me to want to travel in the future.”

Donald Trump is older than my mother by a few years, and a world’s fair memory is, I assume, the reason he promised in May 2023 for “the best of all time… most spectacular birthday party” for the US planned by the “Salute to America 250” taskforce.

Trump pledged to “work with all fifty governors, Republican and Democrat alike” to create “a unique one-year exhibition featuring pavilions from all fifty states.” (Talk about party politics!) The Great American State Fair will “host millions of visitors from around the world” who will come to the heartland of America to experience the glory of every state in the union, he said.

Trump’s vision for the Great American State Fair also includes “major sporting contests for high-school athletes,” “great athletes, wonderful athletes from fantastic high schools” who will compete in the Patriot Games and showcase “the best of American skills, sportsmanship and competitive spirit.”

Trump also promised to sign an executive order to bring back our National Garden of American Heroes, “which we want to build very badly,” and to commission artists for the first 100 statues to populate this new statuary park. He’s also planning to invite citizens and leaders from around the world to visit the United States in honor of our 250th anniversary — “it’s gonna be great” — and advised America’s tourism industry to “get ready” because “we’re going to have a lot of people coming; it will be a record year.”

One of my mother’s most vivid memories of the 1964 New York World’s Fair is the non stop playing of “It’s a Small World After All.” Walt Disney had designed exhibits for the fair and then adapted that mind-numbing song to his “permanent world’s fair” housed in the Epcot Center.

Past world’s fairs have also produced elements that have gone on to become permanent parts of world culture: the Eiffel Tower was constructed for the 1889 World’s Fair; the to-scale replica of the Parthenon hang- ing out in downtown Nashville, Tennessee was built for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition; and Seattle’s Space Needle is a byproduct of the 1962 world’s fair. The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, held in Chicago, is where the Ferris wheel, the automatic dishwasher, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and the zipper made their debut.

So far this year, America is killing it on the world stage, and it’s no surprise that Trump, the OG influencer who made a name for himself by plastering his brand all over everything, is pushing America to become the international influencer.

“Together we will build it, and they will come,” Trump said of the Great American State Fair. And I hope they do.