Who knew that Kansas ranked fourth in the US for sunflower production, or that Georgia has been number one for poultry farms since 1951? Or that Montana’s official state sport is rodeo?

There are endless facts to be gleaned from four hours trudging around the Great American State Fair, and some of them are vaguely interesting. If this sprawling event had been the dream child of Alan Partridge, nobody would raise an eyebrow.

But this is Donald Trump’s contribution to America’s 250th birthday celebrations, and the result is often achingly, numbingly dull.

What’s missing is all the things Mr Trump is known for: pizazz, glitz and showmanship. Instead, what the great American public is being served up is the one thing he doesn’t do so much of: facts, endless facts.

The Great American State Fair occupies a great chunk of the National Mall, nestled between Washington’s World Cup Fifa fan zone (which is exciting) and the Washington Monument.

There are tents and booths for everything, including the 50 states – but also a stall for Mr Trump’s own social media platform Truth Social (where you can sign up and get a red tick), another for SpaceX and a tent for US steel.

In the Wyoming booth, bison hair (or is it fur?) is available for stroking while the Florida display (widely recognised as the most exciting experience on offer) includes as its chief draw an artificial putting green that’s about 5ft by 3ft.

The department of defense, which deployed a couple of marines to paint children’s faces with camouflage, was the big hit among the federal departments, laid out in a row of pre-fab buildings. The office of personnel management’s booth was not, it’s fair to say, a crowd pleaser.

“This is all so weird,” said Amy Cohen, 65, a university administrator from Virginia, “I am really sad and disappointed that what could have been an extraordinary celebration of the many, many things that make the United States a wonderful place was attenuated, reduced and flattened.

“It’s like reading a social studies textbook from the seventh grade. There’s so much vibrancy in the country, and this is unnecessarily vanilla. And there aren’t a lot of people here.”

Trump supporters weren’t convinced either. Holly Lewis, 57, a travel agent from Richmond, Virginia, said: “I grew up with state fairs in Iowa, and this is really disappointing.” She was sitting in a chair at the Maine stall with her daughter Dani, 26.

Besides the chairs, there’s nothing other than a backdrop with a few facts printed on such as: “Maine is the largest producer of blueberries.”

Several states, including Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont, have boycotted the event, which was opened by Mr Trump on June 25 and which will run until July 10.

“This should have been the highlight of my life,” said Mrs Lewis. “This should have been like the World Exposition. But most of the states are a bit of a disappointment. It would have been really good if Fifa had run this. This feels like a silent protest.”

The fair’s organisers – the Freedom 250 committee set up to oversee the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations – declined to reveal attendance records.

But the area is huge, and crowds do seem sparse. A gymnast doing tricks with hoops on a podium drew a crowd of maybe 30 people spread out on the grass. Arizona had clocked up 3,000 visitors to its display on the first Sunday of the fair. But its booth was one of the better ones.

“I think we would have had a lot more people if Trump wasn’t president,” said Wiley Larsen, who was counting visitors through the Arizona booth. He’s a Trump voter – “I think he’s doing a lot of great things,” he said – but recognises the president’s divisiveness.

Out on the Mall, the fair’s centrepiece is a Ferris wheel that’s 110ft high (the London Eye is four times the height), although its operation has been reportedly disrupted by power outages which also resulted in melted ice cream.

A rodeo ring has also been constructed in which a cowboy rides a bucking bronco or bull once a day. “It’s not a real rodeo,” one of those involved in its construction whispered.

Then there’s a scaled-down replica of the president’s planned 250ft victory arch, which online critics have likened to a miniature Stonehenge in the spoof documentary This is Spinal Tap! Others said it looked like it had been bought from the bargain website Temu.

Ari Drumm, 58, a salesman who had flown in from Florida, blamed TDS – Trump Derangement Syndrome – for the no-show states and the no-show crowds. “It’s a disgrace,” he said. “We should be together in this. We should be 50 united states and this is not very unified.”

He wore a t-shirt with Maga emblazoned on the front, and as he walked off, the slogan on the back became clear. Beneath photographs of the president and JD Vance, the writing on the back of the t-shirt said: “The Outlaw and the Hillbilly cleaning up America one liberal at a time.”

Mr Trump opened the fair with what one Trump watcher called “notably tame remarks”, sticking to a script and declaring: “Tonight, as we stand on the edge of our 250th year of independence, I am thrilled to declare that America is back,” he said.

But he has been stung by the criticism since its opening. “Do you think people appreciate what a fantastic job we did in building and operating the Great American State fair at the National Mall, packed with happy people, and everybody loving it?”

Joe Biden or Barack Obama could never have created such a show, Mr Trump insisted.

On that, he is probably correct.