Attendees sit on the grass in front of the Ferris wheel at the Trump administration’s Freedom 250 Great American State Fair on the National Mall on Thursday, June 25, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – Visitors from across the United States traveled to the National Mall on Thursday for the opening day of the Great American State Fair, a daylong event that is part of President Donald Trump’s Freedom 250 celebration of the country’s 500th anniversary.
States and territories showcased cultural and agricultural exports at exhibitions that spanned nearly a mile in length. Attendees took photos on the compact Grand Ole Opry stage at the Tennessee booth, children tried their hand at Indiana’s miniature golf course, and cowboys rode horses at the Montana rodeo.
A 110-foot-long Ferris wheel spun slowly in the center of the freshly manicured lawn, framing the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol in the distance on either side. A model of Trump’s controversial “Arch of Triumph” stood nearby.
People collected loot in each state — drawstring bags from Ohio, stickers from South Dakota, snacks from Tennessee — and could get a stamp on the states’ fair passes.
The fair is part of the larger Freedom 250 program and began on Wednesday evening with a rally at the mall with a speech from the president that closely resembled his remarks during the 2024 presidential campaign. Celebrations will continue on Independence Day, when Trump will give a second speech, followed by what promises to be an impressive fireworks display.
The president will visit North and South Dakota as part of his Freedom 250 tour for the opening of the Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library and the fireworks display over Mount Rushmore on the eve of Independence Day.
Freedom 250 then extends into August with a high school sports competition in Washington, DC, dubbed the “Patriot Games,” and a Freedom 250 INDYCAR race around the National Mall.
The administration’s party is independent of the America250 Commission, which was created by Congress a decade ago and has its own commission nationwide program this year.
From Lake Erie to the Ohio River
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and First Lady Fran DeWine welcomed guests to the Ohio Pavilion. The couple posed for photos in front of a map of the Buckeye State.
“We wanted to see on the wall all the different things, from Lake Erie to the Ohio River, all the different fun things you can do in Ohio,” the Republican governor said, adding that the state has planned local celebrations and initiatives to mark the 250th anniversary, including “Movies in Ohio” for community screenings of films featuring the state.
Ohio’s first lady presented a children’s literacy exhibit on the opposite wall and drew attention to the approximately 427,000 participants in the state’s partnership with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, a program that sends free children’s books monthly to households with children under 5.
“We have shipped 27 million books. We know that a child’s brain is 80% developed by the age of 3, so we want to get these books to them early,” she said.
Reflecting on America’s milestone birthday, the governor said, “We’re always a work in progress, Ohio is a work in progress, this country is a work in progress.”
“I think you know what we all need to keep in mind is that there are some key core principles that we all believe in. … We may not agree on different policies, but the core principles are the same,” he said.
Cartwheels on the lawn
People from different states went from exhibition to exhibition while stopping in the national capital during their road trip vacation.
Tanya Geders, 43, of St. Louis, Missouri, was cartwheeling on the mall lawn, trying to persuade her son to join in. On the way to Virginia Beach, the family stopped at the state fair.
“We think if we go to the ocean, we can go to D.C. and what better time to be here than the 250th anniversary,” Geders said.
Robyn Toman, 71, of Severn, Maryland, accompanied her 12-year-old grandson Miles to meet DeWine and take a photo with the governor.
Toman said she remembers the country’s bicentennial.
“I was a kid his age and I came here in 1976. I said, ‘We’ll go to D.C. for a few days and check this out,'” she said.
“We had fun. We went to the archives yesterday and saw the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. And, oh, that was so beautiful, that was fantastic.”
Not all states are there. A spokesman for the Washington state lieutenant governor’s office told the state’s newsroom that the administration declined to join because “participation would be costly to the state.”
Accordingly News ReportsConnecticut, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont contributed no exhibits, although many are still represented by flags outside individual stands.
State officials did not immediately respond to the state newsroom for confirmation.
With the exception of Vermont, all of the states that reportedly did not participate are Democratic-led.
