This year’s annual White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday is going to be quite different from previous years thanks to the Trumps, and the media and the Washington elites are not happy.

For former President Barack Obama’s final Easter Egg Roll last year, celebrities flocked to the White House, including singer Beyoncé, NBA athletes, Washington Redskins players, and “Frozen” voice actress Idina Menzel. Approximately 37,000 people descended upon the South Lawn to partake in the Easter festivities, where Obama officials distributed 85,000 commemorative wooden eggs.

“I am confident that the success of this year’s Easter Egg Roll will speak for itself.”

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But the inaugural Easter Egg Roll for President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump is shaping up to be a low-key, less crowded affair, with a sparse celebrity presence and only 40,000 commemorative eggs. Instead of the massive star power that characterized most social events at the Obama White House, the Trump family invited only the Nashville-based six-person Martin Family Circus band to perform for the festivities.

“Our team has been working very hard to make this year’s event a success,” Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump’s spokeswoman, told the New York Times. “I am confident that the success of this year’s Easter Egg Roll will speak for itself.”

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For many detractors, the White House’s efforts are not enough to stave off criticism.

“It’s the single most high-profile event that takes place at the White House each year, and the White House and the first lady are judged on how well they put it on,” Melinda Bates, the director of the White House Visitors Office under former President Bill Clinton, told the Times. “I’m really concerned for the Trump people, because they have failed to fill some really vital posts, and this thing is all hands on deck.”

Bates added that “if you can pull off an Easter Egg Roll … you can do anything.”

The Trump family began planning what Washington insiders have dubbed the White House’s single biggest annual event later in the year than their predecessors. In fact, the White House didn’t even confirm that the 138-year-old-tradition would be continued until March.

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But the Trumps’ Easter Egg Roll behavior is in line with the president’s eschewing of several expected, pomp-and-circustmance activities in his widespread shakeup in Washington.

Trump drew criticism and dismissive speculation when he attended dramatically fewer inaugural balls than his predecessors. Trump attended just three celebrations on the evening of his swearing-in ceremony— far fewer than Bill Clinton’s record-setting 14 balls. His inaugural parade was approximately 1.5 hours shorter than the average length of previous presidents’ parades.

What’s more, Trump had the audacity to snub the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner, much to the outraged media’s dismay. The unconventional Easter Egg Roll proceedings fall entirely in line with the president’s behavior and his dogged desire to get to work putting “America first” without the usual pomp and circumstance.

“Some tips from previous years,” the WH Easter Egg Roll Twitter account tweeted Saturday with a link to its event page, adding, “Keep in mind this year should be less crowded. 4,000 per group instead of 7,000.”

During Tuesday’s daily briefing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer — who appeared as the Easter Bunny for the Egg Roll in former President George W. Bush’s White House in 2008 — insisted that “we have worked really well” to make the Easter Egg Roll a success this year.

“I think we’re going to have a very, very enjoyable day on Monday,” Spicer said. “Tickets have been sent out to all the schools in the area. There will be a large military contingent that will be participating, as well. And I think there’s five waves over two-hour periods in which children and their families will be able to come to the White House. We’ve done extensive community outreach to really bring a lot of the school children and from the area in, and it’s going to be a great day.”

Spicer did not mention whether or not he’d planned to appear once again as the East Bunny.

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Grisham reaffirmed Spicer’s upbeat sentiment saying, “The focus this year is on the quality of the children’s experience,” she noted, according to Politico.

But the downsized and delayed start to this year’s Easter Egg Roll has led the media and DC insiders to speculate in abundance that the event is a metaphor for the Trump administration at large, and many downplay the Trump White House’s efforts.

“The evidence points to a quickly thrown-together affair that people close to the planning said would probably draw about 20,000 people — substantially smaller than last year’s Easter Egg Roll, which drew 37,000. It will be staffed by 500 volunteers, Ms. Grisham said, half the usual,” the Times noted in its report on Tuesday. “Ms. Grisham said she did not have ‘firm numbers’ on the overall number of attendees, and those who provided estimates did so on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to describe the plans for the Easter Egg Roll, which are still evolving just a week before the event.”

In a Tuesday article on Slate called: “White House Waits So Long to Plan Easter Egg Roll, Only Deplorables Remain to Fill Baskets.” Author Heather Schwedel wrote, “There’s really no excuse for this level of incompetence.”

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“More importantly, the White House Easter Egg Roll is supposed to be a gimme, a feel-good public relations coup that makes the administration look good. Associating yourself with happy children and wholesome good fun is always going to be a no-brainer, and in this administration, it would be a welcome distraction from the failure of the Republican-led health care plan, allegations of ties to Russia, and some of the other undesirable narratives that have plagued the White House in its first few months,” Schwedel wrote.

She then added ominously that “the Trump administration has a lot of other things on its plate to worry about right now.”

“Of course the Easter Egg Roll wasn’t going to be top priority. But it’s not going to look great if a bunch of children are crying on the White House lawn because there aren’t enough eggs, or the volunteers in bunny suits seem suspiciously like Russian goons, or Trump tries to hug any of them and they recoil in terror,” Schwedel wrote.

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