A Trump-branded auto race through the streets of Washington drew far smaller crowds than promised, adding to the sense that his spending on spectacle is falling flat with the public.

• Attendance estimates ranged from a million down to under a hundred thousand, but the grandstands looked mostly empty.
• The event was badly organized — poor signs, dead-end streets, fenced-off viewing areas, and people charged for ice in the heat.
• Every branch of the military was pulled in to deliver the pace car, turning a public celebration into a taxpayer-funded promotion.
• Trump's face and branding covered the route, including a banner on the Justice Department, with the National Guard on crowd duty.
• Polls already show people are tired of this kind of spending, and the empty seats matched that mood.

Outlook: Expect more of these staged national events, and more public indifference to them.