President Donald Trump is about to force Washington D.C. to bend its July Fourth celebration to his will, complete with extra fireworks, military tanks that threaten the Lincoln Memorial's structural integrity, and a presidential speech whose “nonpolitical” tone is all but certain to go off the rails. But now the question is: How many people will actually show up? According to a Politico report Wednesday, the White House and Republican National Committee are worried that the event's last-minute nature will turn July Fourth into a repeat of Trump’s poorly-attended inauguration debacle, as barely any of the VIPs they're inviting to the festivities are expected to actually attend. “They started this too late and everyone has plans already,” Republican donor and Canary, LLC CEO Dan Eberhart told Politico. “Everyone will be there in spirit, but in reality, people planned their July Fourth activities weeks ago.”

While the event is expected to be attended by several Cabinet members and senior White House officials, none of the lawmakers or Trump donors contacted by Politico said they would be attending the Independence Day event. As my colleague Emily Jane Fox reported, the president won't even be able to rely on his family's company, as Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner are all fleeing D.C. for the Hamptons. Instead, the White House is reportedly ginning up attendance by allowing staffers to enter a lottery to receive up to 10 tickets each—an unusually high number compared with the two to four tickets usually granted for White House events. “It’s not a very tough ticket to get,” a Republican close to the White House told Politico. “They’re not going to give it away to anyone off the street, but if you have any juice at all, you can probably get the tickets.” (The White House has not yet gotten desperate enough to open up the “nonpolitical” event to Democrats; though the R.N.C. has received tickets to distribute, the Democratic National Committee reportedly has not.)

The last-minute attendance woes are the latest bad press to befall Trump's desperate attempt to use July Fourth to live out his military parade dreams—or as he described it Wednesday, “the show of a lifetime.” In the days leading up to the festivities, reports of mismanagement have plagued the fireworks spectacle, which Trump is reportedly producing himself, as federal agencies desperately try to cater to Trump's every overblown whim. And it wouldn't be a Trump event without potential ethical violations and an astronomical cost to the American taxpayer. Critics have decried the event's use of $2.5 million in National Parks Service fees—a mere fraction of the total government funds being spent—while ABC News reports that one of the companies donating fireworks to the celebration, Phantom Fireworks, lobbied the Trump administration to back off its planned Chinese tariffs, which include fireworks. Trump later announced he'd hold off on the threatened tariffs—the same day as Phantom Fireworks's donation was announced. The president then made matters worse by tweeting praise for Phantom Fireworks and fireworks company Fireworks by Grucci, which ABC notes could be seen as a promotion that violates presidential ethics guidelines.

Now, with reports that attendance could be be sparse—not to mention the forecasted rain and thunderstorms—will all the effort and controversy be worth it? Not even the Trump team appears to be sure. “They are creating this thing from scratch, and I do not know if anyone knows how it will go off,” one White House aide told Politico Wednesday. “There are questions about the ticket distribution and who will show up. The weather might be bad. Heads are spinning.”

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