How Trump took a page out of Frye Festival’s incompetence: conservative

During his 2024 presidential campaign, convicted fraudster Billy McFarland reportedly helped President Donald Trump get celebrity endorsements. McFarland is best known for co-organizing the Fyre Festival, a 2017 concert infamous for not delivering its promised performers, providing unsafe accommodations and leaving thousands of concertgoers stranded.

Flash forward two years and, according to one conservative commentator, Trump is channeling the Fyre Festival’s incompetent energy to the White House UFC event — and that it is therefore a disaster waiting to happen.

“Mid-June through mid-July see a lot of thunder and lightning in Washington and GIANT STEEL ARCHES are about the most dangerous thing you could possibly be near if there’s lighting,” noted The Bulwark’s Jonathan V. Last on Monday. “This isn’t a venue. It’s a Dome of Electric Death.”

He added, “Which is why if there’s even a hint of lightning anywhere within a 10-mile radius, they’ll have to evacuate the South Lawn area, to get people away from the death trap. And, if you listen to the beta-cucks at Weather.gov, the audience will have to stay evacuated for at least 30 minutes after the final flash of lightning.” Compounding matters, Last observed, if the audience disperses outside the security perimeter, they will need to be processed through security again to enter.

Even if the weather is fine, however, Last said there will still be a major logistical problem.

“The other thing the Dome of Electric Death will do is attract bugs. A lot of them,” Last wrote. “These bugs will swarm the super-bright lights that are studded along the entirety of each steel arc. After they buzz around the lights for a while, the bugs will die. And fall. Their little dead bug bodies will rain down on the audience in a steady trickle all night long. Maybe the people in attendance won’t notice. But if I were there I’d probably wear a hat.”

After pointing out that it will be difficult to sell quality food in this environment, Last also predicted that if someone gets drunk (as tends to happen among UFC audiences), they could yell something “unfortunate” that gets caught on camera. Given these risks, Last concluded, Trump would be better off just holding a political rally, especially since he seems more interested in promoting himself than American history anyway.

From there, he mused on the meaning of America 250 years into its history.

“On the one hand, America, the brand, made it to 250 years. Good on us,” Last wrote. “On the other hand, America the liberal democracy is in its decadent, late-imperial phase. Most of our political and civic institutions have failed the authoritarian test. One of our political parties is explicitly searching for ‘post-liberalism.’ Thanks to abdication by the legislature and legislation by the judiciary, our president is now a defined-term monarch.”

In addition to the UFC fight, Trump also planned a concert, although many of the booked acts pulled out after claiming they signed on without being told about the president’s involvement. In response to their withdrawals, Trump has threatened to cancel the concert altogether. MS NOW’s Jeff Slate wrote that this signified Trump’s loss of cultural cachet.

“This was major news, and MAGA world took notice,” Slate explained. “Remember that it was only a year ago that contemporary country star Carrie Underwood happily accepted an invitation to perform at Trump’s second swearing-in ceremony, despite not insignificant backlash from progressive fans.”

After pointing out that some of the people withdrawing are explicitly apolitical in their image, such as singers Martina McBridge and Bret Michaels, Slate concluded that “something, clearly, has shifted. And fast.”

He added, “Despite what some of her loudest critics are now implying on social media, McBride does not have a track record of supporting leftist causes. Instead, her decision highlights in the starkest of terms just how culturally corrosive Trump has become during his second term. That’s what a war of choice, soaring gas and food prices, stagnating inflation, and an aggregate job approval rating in the 30s can lead to.”