Who Really Politicized America’s 250th Birthday?

The Great American State Fair opened on the National Mall in Washington on Saturday, kicking off a 16-day run organized by Freedom 250, a public-private partnership the Trump administration created to plan semiquincentennial events.

The fair features food and culture booths from all 56 states and territories, federal agency displays, and temporary halls along the Mall, anchored by a 110-foot Freedom 250 Ferris wheel and a scaled-down replica of the triumphal arch Trump wants to build in Washington.

Trump formally opened the fair Thursday night after Lee Greenwood performed "God Bless the USA" with fighter jet flyovers and military bands setting the mood before his remarks. "This anniversary is a time to be proud of our past, but it is also a time to lift our sights, expand our ambitions and raise our expectations of what America can be," Trump told the crowd.

That's the kind of message every American could rally behind. Democrat governors in at least ten states, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Pennsylvania, refused to send a delegation anyway. Several big-name performers, including Martina McBride, Bret Michaels, Young MC, Morris Day & The Time, and The Commodores, had also pulled out of the lineup shortly after being announced, citing claims of partisanship.

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Here's the problem with that excuse: it doesn't hold up. NBC News talked to fairgoers from across the political spectrum, and every single one reported feeling zero political atmosphere. Pamela L., 59, visiting from Virginia Beach for her husband's birthday, said it best: "It's kind of neat, because here it's just been all about America, and I haven't seen the political things. People are just being people [and] enjoying, you know, they're being kind, opening the doors, holding them for each other, and it's just kind of neat to see."

Daniela Guerrero, 25, a Washington resident, admitted she walked in braced for a MAGA pep rally. "I think we heard a lot, like in our communities, that it was gonna be like a MAGA rally," she said, before adding, "It, I think, has been very much nonpartisan. The people showing up have been a mix of tourists just trying to, like, celebrate freedom."

Lloyd Paris, 76, traveled from Georgia with his grandchildren and called Trump's Washington projects "amazing," but said, "I didn't come here because I'm a certain political persuasion."

His wife added, “We would have come even with the previous president."

Lynn Frank, 52, of North Carolina, wasn't buying the excuse from her own governor. She told NBC she was "incredibly disappointed" that Democrat Gov. Josh Stein (D-N.C.) chose not to send a state delegation, adding, “A state fair shouldn't be political."

Frank is right, and that's exactly the point. The people who showed up saw an American celebration. The politicians who stayed home saw a chance to score points. They are the ones who turned a 250th birthday party into a loyalty test. Heck, in its own report, NBC News called it "Trump's Great American State Fair." It was Democrats and the media who made it political. Polling has shown for years that Democrats' love of country rises and falls with whether their party controls the White House. Boycotting a nonpartisan celebration because Trump happens to be president proves the boycotters are the partisan ones.