Trump was to be the main event at his Great American State Fair, but it became a MAGA who wound up in handcuffs for alleged lewd acts while eyeing acrobats

(FTD Speaks -- Facebook)

What if you are a MAGA influencer, broadcasting live from Donald Trump's Great American State Fair on the National Mall, and the sparsely attended event (see photo below) begins to, umm, lose your interest? If you are one right-wing livestreamer, you busy yourself by pleasuring yourself. That's from reports at multiple news outlets, including this jointly published piece at The Daily Beast and Yahoo! News, under the headline "MAGA Fanatic Accused of Twisted Sex Acts at Trump's State Fair." A report like this demands insightful commentary -- both about apparent activity in a livestreamer's pants and lack of activity at Trump's "Great" fair -- and Canada-based Substacker Dean Blundell provides it. But first, let's get the basics from Farrah Tomazin, of The Daily Beast:

A MAGA supporter dressed as Uncle Sam was arrested at Donald Trump's Great American State Fair after police alleged he committed a lewd act.

Police documents reviewed by The Daily Beast show that Gian Rachtelli was charged with "lewd, indecent, or obscene acts" after three separate witnesses told police they observed what appeared to be a sexual act while watching a troupe of female circus performers.

Rachtelli, 54, has been identified online by supporters as the MAGA livestreamer known as "Manny," who was broadcasting live from the event. The influencer's most recent livestream from the day of the arrest cut off abruptly when police officers were shown approaching him, though there was no audio to capture what was being said. He has not posted since.

"False Report. Unfair Report. Wrongful Detention. Free Manny!" one X user wrote in response to word of Rachtelli's arrest.

The acts allegedly took place in front of the Cirque Mechanics acrobatic show on the first day of the fair.

One witness said they were standing behind the man who was vaping and filming the female performers before placing his hand inside his pants in what the witness believed was a sexual act.

Another told police that Rachtelli "returned for the second show, and I saw him with his hand in his pants, likely doing what we all thought he was doing."

And a third witness said they were "approached by a female member of the acrobat team who had noticed an older white male that was making her and other female performers uncomfortable."

"They informed me that they noticed him making lewd gestures in his pants … while they were performing," the witness said. 

Predictably, MAGAs seemed to be "standing by their man," no matter how many witnesses made statements to the police. Tomazin writes:

"I'm standing by Manny 100%. He didn't do this. He was live streaming the entire time, and the footage shows what happened before his arrest," one said on Reddit.

"From everything I've seen, this appears to be an attempt to destroy his reputation, damage his livelihood, and silence someone because of his political views."

That raises these questions: How does Rachtelli earn a living, what is his profession, where does he work? A query to AI Overview produces the following:

Public professional profiles, such as LinkedIn, list him as the CEO and operator of a business called First Class Cellular, based in Parkville, Missouri. (Note: The company actually appears to be in Parkville, Maryland -- with Rachtelli's home reportedly in Baltimore.)

It is unclear if he supports himself primarily through his streaming revenue or his cellular business. He is best known in the public sphere as part of a network of pro-Trump streamers who monetize their content through digital interactions, donations, and audience support.

We have been unable to find a phone number or Website for First-Class Cellular in Parkville, MD. Does it exist? We don't have an answer yet.

As for commentary, we turn to Dean Blundell, who long has been a prominent figure in Canadian media -- working as a radio personality, online commentator, podcaster, and media executive. His Dean Bundell Show became the top-rated morning show in the Toronto market with the core 18-34 demographic. Blundell shifted to independent digital media ownership, launching the digital content and podcast hub DeanBundell.com, which was an aggregator for more than 60 independent creators. That venture, in early 2023, became Crier Media. Blundell now can be found in a number of online locations -- at Substack, at Narative.org, where he and former CBS executive producer Zev Shalev discuss top stories of the day in their "FiveStack"commentary. He also produces The Daily Dean Newsletter," to which you can subscribe here.

I discovered Blundell's work a few months back and have become a big fan. He's insightful, timely, original, and fearless -- unafraid to throw a punch, especially in the direction of the Trump administration. 

Let's take a look at his take on Trump's colossal bust of a fair, which featured a devoted follower being accused by cops of committing a lewd act in public. Blundell writes:

You know how every state fair has butter sculptures? This one had a portrait of Donald Trump, a Turning Point USA booth, and a cow named after Melania. North Carolina’s pavilion got busted on opening day for displaying an “unapproved image” of the Confederate flag. Alabama’s booth was, according to a reporter on the ground, one room with a bucket of peanuts in the middle. That’s the whole exhibit. A bucket. Of peanuts. In a room. Representing Alabama at America’s 250th.

And that is before we get to Manny.

Manny, of course, is Gian Rachtelli -- who apparently was so bored that he decided to show support for Cirque Mechanics, a female-led acrobatic troupe, by diddling himself with no crowd around to provide cover. Three witnesses approached law enforcement with information about what they had seen, and No. 3 might have been the most impactful witness of all, as Blundell reports:

Witness 3: Was approached by one of the female acrobats while she was supposed to be performing. “I was approached by a female member of the acrobat team who had noticed an older white male that was making her & other female performer uncomfortable. They informed me that they noticed him making lewd gestures in his pants (as if he was attempting to/masturbating) while they were performing.”

Three witnesses. Independently. Including a member of the troupe who was so disturbed during her own act that she stepped off and reported it.

Park Police determined probable cause. Rachtelli was arrested on the spot, charged with one count of “lewd, indecent, or obscene acts,” and transported to U.S. Park Police District 1 for processing. His livestream — the one streaming live to his MAGA audience — went black mid-broadcast as officers approached him. He has not posted since.

Knowing that MAGAs were likely to downsize any form of "pocket pool" Rachtelli might have been playing and upsize any attempts to estimate the crowd, Blundell decided to take matters into his own hands, writing:

You know what’s coming. You always know what’s coming. Within hours, MAGA Reddit and MAGA X had a new martyr.

“False Report. Unfair Report. Wrongful Detention. Free Manny!”

“I’m standing by Manny 100%. He didn’t do this. He was live-streaming the entire time, and the footage shows what happened before his arrest.”

“From everything I’ve seen, this appears to be an attempt to destroy his reputation, damage his livelihood, and silence someone because of his political views.”

Yes. Yes. The deep state has finally come for the guy in the Uncle Sam costume jerking it at the circus. It’s all coming together. They don’t want you to enjoy Cirque Mechanics in your own pants. They are silencing Manny because of his political views — the political view being, apparently, “I should be allowed to do whatever I want at a taxpayer-funded event because I’m wearing patriotic clothing.” Free speech. First Amendment. Free Manny.

This is the cult, in its purest form. There is no behavior — no behavior — a MAGA man can engage in that the rest of MAGA won’t immediately reframe as persecution. A Secret Service agent on Trump’s own detail was arrested earlier this year for indecent exposure for masturbating in front of guests at a Miami hotel. (Look it up. John Spillman. Real story.) Now a MAGA livestreamer in costume gets pinched for the same thing at Trump’s own state fair, and the response from the base is to demand his release and announce a conspiracy. The defense isn’t “he didn’t do it.” The defense is “and if he did, the libs made him.”

These are the same people who spent the last three years demanding the world be “protected from groomers.” Who can’t say the word “drag queen” without losing their lunch. Whose entire moral framework is supposedly built on protecting children and families from public indecency. And the moment one of their own is charged with allegedly committing public indecency in costume, on livestream, in front of female performers at a family event, the line becomes: don’t believe your lying eyes. Free Manny.

Why This Story Is The Whole Story

Look at the picture. Actually look at it. A man in a giant red Uncle Sam top hat, mouth open, American flag glasses, mid-livestream, at an empty federal event on the National Mall, allegedly with his hand down his pants while female acrobats perform six feet from him.

That’s not just the worst day of one guy’s life. That’s the photograph of what’s left of the MAGA spectacle in mid-2026.

The fair was supposed to be the kickoff to America’s biggest birthday ever. The 250th. The semiquincentennial. The thing this country has been planning, in some form, since the 1990s. It was supposed to be unifying. Bipartisan. Like the 200th in 1976, when Republicans and Democrats and everybody in between sat on the same lawn and watched the same fireworks because being American was the point. 

Instead, it’s a Trump rally with a Ferris wheel. The acts boycotted it. The states refused to fund it. The musicians who showed up got rained on. The crowd Trump claims is 45,000 is actually 1,000 with half of them in MAGA hats leaving early. The food is a Disney rip-off with a bucket of room-temperature peanuts representing Alabama. The most expensive single item is a $24.96 pretzel. The “highlights” are a plywood arch and a borrowed Ferris wheel. The cow is named Melania. The Confederate flag had to be removed by Friday afternoon. The president lied about all of it by Thursday afternoon. And the on-the-ground content moment that broke the internet wasn’t a flyover or a fiddle contest or a moment of national unity.

It was a 54-year-old man dressed as Uncle Sam, on his own livestream, allegedly getting himself off in his pants while watching female acrobats — and his fans calling him a political prisoner inside of two hours.

That is what $100 million bought. That is the kickoff to America’s 250th. That is who showed up.

Donald Trump doesn’t throw events. He throws Yelp warnings. Everything he touches becomes a one-star review with photos. The Lincoln Reflecting Pool turned Kermit-green. The Ferris wheel broke. The ice cream melted. The musicians fled. The states bailed. The mascot is a cow named after his wife. And the lasting image — the one that’s going to be in every history book that gets written about this whole grotesque period — is the Uncle Sam in handcuffs.

Trump is going to do this again on July 4th. He’s already said so. “I’ll be speaking again,” he posted, like a regional theater production announcing additional dates. There will be more arches. More plywood. More $23 turkey legs. And, statistically, almost certainly, more Mannys. Because that’s the lineup. That’s the audience. That’s the crowd.

This is who they are. This is who you’re standing next to. Look at the picture. Look at the costume. Look at the livestream timeline. Look at the comments defending him. Then look at every politician, every preacher, every podcaster, every grifter who told you these were the people protecting your kids and your country.

The receipts are heavy. The receipts are public. And the receipts are deeply embarrassing.

From up here in Canada, this is the part where I always remind you: This is not a “both countries are the same” moment. This is not a “every country has problems” moment. This is the United States of America, on the eve of its 250th birthday, with a president openly campaigning to annex my country, throwing a fair where the headline event is an Uncle Sam getting walked out in handcuffs. We’re not laughing at America. We love America. Our grandparents fought beside yours. We’re laughing at this. The cult. The grift. The whole carnival.

You deserve so much better. You deserve fireworks and corn dogs and bunting and Bruce Springsteen. You deserve butter sculptures and pie contests and the world’s smallest horse. You deserve the good version of yourselves on your 250th birthday.

What you got was Manny.

Pour one out for MAGA and America. What a F****** AWESOME DISASTER.

Trump's Great American Fair features plenty of room to stretch out. (Yahoo!)

Trump turns a meeting about NATO into a rant about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool -- demonstrating again that he is a man of grievance, not governance

Trump turns meeting about NATO into rant about Reflecting Pool (NY Times)

 At 11:18 A.M. CDT yesterday, a report moved across the Associated Press (AP) wire under the headline "Reflecting Pool liner was  cut with a sharp knife or razor, National Park Service says." The full story can be read at the link in the previous sentence, but the key section is this:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A liner along the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was cut with a sharp knife or razor this month, causing damage to the foam sealant installed as part of a $16 million rehabilitation project, a top official at the National Park Service says.

The agency reported the June 9 incident to U.S. Park Police, said Frank Lands, deputy director of operations for the park service. Lands made the statement in a court document filed late Wednesday as part of a lawsuit filed by a nonprofit organization to halt the Trump administration's work on the project.

His statement does not say whether the damage is a suspected case of vandalism or identify anyone who might have been involved.

The police report indicates damage to the pool, "including a caulk over the foam sealant that was cut with a sharp knife or razor and destruction of delaminating surface material,'' Lands said. About 70 fence post tops also were thrown into the pool, he said.

The statements were the first time the Republican administration has offered specifics for when and how the Reflecting Pool might have been damaged after work on the project was substantially completed.

The AP is one of the most trusted news sources in the world, but is the above story, and the court document upon which it is based, to be believed? Raw Story has problems with it, as spelled out under the headline "Trump's claim fizzles as Park Service won't back Reflecting Pool 'gash' in court." David Edwards writes:

The National Park Service refused to corroborate President Donald Trump's claim of a 350-foot Reflecting Pool "gash" in a sworn court declaration filed this week.

Frank Lands, the NPS's deputy director for operations, submitted the two-page declaration in an ongoing federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia over the pool's renovation.

Lands described cut caulk, peeling liner material, and roughly 70 fence post tops thrown into the water. He never used the word "gash." He never cited a 350-foot figure.

Is Raw Story nit-picking here? In the real world, the answer might be yes. But in the world of courtrooms, cases can be won or lost based on imprecise language or unclear arguments. In other words, nit-picks matter, and Edwards' statements are true and relevant -- The Lands declaration does not support Trump's claims about a gash in the liner material and a gash (or "slash") over 350 feet.

What jumped out at me was Lands' claim about "roughly 70 fence post tops thrown into the water." Where did that information come from, and who might have thrown parts of fence posts into the water -- apparently without being captured on the 24-7 security cameras that are present in the area?

Raw Story is not alone in casting doubt on statements about the Reflecting Pool from Donald Trump and his subordinates. The Occupy Democrats (Occ Dems) Facebook page does everything but call the administration's various claims "utter horse manure (or words to that effect)." In fact, the Occ Dems post proves to be a hoot, so we are publishing it below in full, with no editorial additions or subtractions from us (other than one or two clarifications; clarifying is a challenge when Trump himself seems to have no idea what he is saying.). We all probably could use some laughs in the midst of the Trump lunacy sucking up the air around us, and this piece provides it -- along with analysis that is semi-serious, emphasizing Trump's inability, in a formal setting, to string together coherent sentences. We highly recommend it:

BREAKING: INSANITY! Trump totally DERAILS an Oval Office meeting with NATO's Secretary General to rant about the Reflecting Pool and the imaginary "vandals" with their "razor blades."

This lunatic belongs in a padded room...

"Will the fencing around the Reflecting Pool be down by July 4th or is that going to be—" a reporter asked.

Trump has erected fencing around the algae-infested Lincoln Memorial Pool to boost his false narrative that vandals have been sneaking in to slash at the lining. In reality, he hired incompetent crooks to do the renovations and then had workers pour hydrogen peroxide into the water. "The pool? It's in great shape. No. Ready? Thugs!" said Trump, barely managing to string his words together. "They just told me a little while ago, six have been arrested, and like six or seven are under investi— They have pictures and everything else. They went to the bottom and it's not a paint job."

There are no pictures or Trump would have already released them. It's still unclear if anyone has actually been arrested, but if they have, it seems all but certain that the cases will be thrown out of court.

"It's very expensive. It's not rubber but it's like rubber," Trump continued. "And they went down with probably a box cutter or a very sharp razor of some kind or knife, and they cut, and then they started ripping it up. You know why? Because they're sick people. . . ."

Again, if this were true, there would be countless videos from tourists or police of the alleged vandalism. The pool is under constant surveillance. There's no way the acts he describes would have gone unnoticed.

As Trump unspooled his deranged lies, Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO, sat silent and stone-faced beside him. This meeting was supposed to be dedicated to shoring up America's alliances and discussing pressing national-security issues. Instead, it devolved into an utterly nonsensical diatribe.

"And then the side of the pool, right at water level, they took razors and they started cutting this, you know, very expensive stuff. It's incredible stuff," Trump continued. "It's beautiful. And it was so... And it's still beautiful. But we have one area where they cut it. It's still holding. It's not leaking. But they hurt it, so in about... Probably maybe after July 4th or maybe before. I don't know. We'll let a little water out because it's at the edge. They'll cut it. They'll replace it, and it'll be as good as new."

"But these people should go to jail for a long time. You know, there's a statute that I signed when I had my first term that if you do anything to hurt statues or monuments, fountains, in Washington, D.C., or federal fountains," he went on. "It's actually federal all over the country. But you go to jail for 10 years, and there's no shortcuts. In other words, it's not five years for good behavior. It's a very tough statute, and so tough that it really hasn't been used very much over the years. But I used it when they had a problem in Washington where they were trying to hurt... You know, the sickos were trying to hurt things, and I announced it."

For the sake of your sanity, we won't recount every word that Trump uttered this time. It was an astonishingly long rant about the Reflecting Pool, and he bounced from one half-formed thought to the next, clearly agitated but unable to fully focus. The allegations of dementia have never been more believable.

At one point, he claimed that one of the supposed vandals is a Democrat who donates to ActBlue. 

"He's a big Hillary supporter. He's a big supporter of Sleepy Joe Biden," said Trump. "No, this is a very political thing. But as I understand it, six are under arrest. This was pure vandalism."

Laced throughout his remarks were attacks on Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and he repeated his totally fabricated claim that they "spent over $100 million" on the pool.

"We spent $14 million or $15 million, and a lot less than that because a lot of these people work for the Parks Department anyway. So, you know, they're going to work. So I would say a lot less," said Trump.

But look at the pool now! It's hideous. Even $1 million would have been too much if this is what it ends up looking like. Trump took our tax dollars, set them on fire, and foisted an eyesore onto our capital in the process.

Trump just kept talking and talking, unable to return his attention to NATO, getting more and more worked up about the pool.

"No, but the water looks great," he said. "But we will do the final fix-up. But just remember this. They took razor blades 350 feet. Coming from where he comes, they don't do that. They took razor blades and knives, and they cut patches like that. 350 feet long. A lot of them are like a foot, a foot, a foot. They cut the lining."

He also alleged, again without a shred of evidence, that leftist activists poured "acid" on the grass around the Reflecting Pool to kill and discolor it.

"Ready? I'm going to end on this," Trump said, apparently realizing that he had been ranting for more than eleven minutes. "I'm so proud of Washington, D.C. It's become one of the hottest cities in the world. But what is the hottest in the world is the United States of America. We have the hottest city. And you know that. You were talking about that."

"Two years ago, we were laughed at. We were a joke. We were a dead country. Now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. Thank you very much, everybody," he concluded.

While this Reflecting Pool fiasco is entertaining because of how much it clearly enrages and frustrates Trump, it's also a sobering reminder of how deeply unfit this man is to be president. At a time when Americans are struggling to afford groceries, rent, and healthcare, our leader is obsessed with the color of a pool.

America has hit a new low.