Fox's Peter Doocy mocked for hyping turnout for Trump event — in front of near-empty field

Reporting from the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Fox News’ Peter Doocy claimed that people were “still coming out” to the Great American State Fair, though he soon became the butt of a joke online after viewers noted a glaring contradiction directly behind him.

“It’s really something!” Doocy said Sunday, speaking from an elevated news desk on the National Mall about the fair, organized by the President Donald Trump-linked group Freedom 250. “The weather, not the best today, but people are still coming out.”

The problem, as noted by countless online critics, was that the expansive field behind him – the hub of the fair’s state exhibits – was almost completely empty.

“There’s literally no one behind them,” quipped Joanne Carducci, a prominent liberal influencer and commentator, writing in a social media post on X Sunday to her more than 1 million followers.

Carlos Turnbull, another prominent liberal influencer, said that even the descriptor of “not many people” would be a “generous way of describing attendance at the Trump fair,” and John Hartzell, who runs popular political humor social media accounts, quipped that Trump’s group behind the fair “was called Freedom 250 because that’s how many people went.”

Beyond what appears to be lower-than-expected turnout, the fair has been plagued with challenges since opening to the public last Thursday, including from power outages that halted a Ferris wheel and melted perishable foods. Weeks before the fair opened, artists slated to perform at the event pulled out en masse after learning of its ties to Trump.