Donald Trump likes to be unpredictable. Take people by surprise. Do things on the spur of the moment. Trump seems to think this gives him an edge over military people who actually—what’s that word … plan. But there’s an upcoming event that involves challenging logistics, and is already running afoul of Trump’s do-it-on-the-fly attitude.
“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,” said Melinda Bates, who organized eight years of Easter Egg Rolls as director of the White House Visitors Office under President Bill Clinton.
There were several steps required to prepare for the event. First, someone needed to explain to Trump that this kind of egg roll doesn’t usually come with duck sauce. Second, they had to order the eggs—a step that, like most things Trump, required a flurry of last-minute confusion.
The staff of the company, based in Buckfield, Me., wondered whether the Trumps planned to continue distributing the wooden eggs as party favors, or whether they were even going to have a White House Easter Egg Roll at all.
As a result of bad planning, Trump’s egg-vent isn’t expected to measure up.
The late start in planning by the Trump White House points to a smaller and less ambitious Egg Roll than in previous years. There may be half as many guests, a fraction of the number of volunteers to manage the invasion of the South Lawn, and military bands in place of A-list entertainers like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Idina Menzel and Silentó who have performed for Egg Rolls past.
So … small crowd, badly organized event, and poor entertainment. Why does that seem so familiar?
Trump’s pre-inaugural concert?
The National Park Service declined to estimate how many people attended the concert. MSNBC estimated the crowd at around 10,000. …
[For President Obama’s 2009 concert] the Washington Post estimated 400,000 people attended.
Trump’s inauguration?
President Donald Trump and his team are still fuming over evidence of a relatively small crowd for his inauguration, with his chief of staff claiming the reports are an effort to “de-legitimize” Trump and another senior adviser explaining that the administration is offering “alternative facts.”
Can Donald Trump successfully host a group of American children for an Easter Egg Roll? Like all things Trump, the event is starting off with confusion, conflict, and delay.
The ovoid uncertainty had raised a question perhaps not as consequential as investigations into Russian interference in the presidential election, a legally dubious travel ban and a collapsed health care bill, but no less a window into the inner workings of the Trump administration: Could this White House, plagued by slow hiring and lacking an on-site first lady, manage to pull off the largest, most elaborate and most heavily scrutinized public event of the year?
Now, because we have access to a collection of nice photos, here’s some good memories and a measure of what doing it right really means.
Maybe it would be better to just skip it this year.