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Donald Trump has offered to perform at his “Freedom 250” celebration at the Great American State Fair, after even more acts have pulled out.
The event, touted as a “once-in-a-generation celebration”, is scheduled to take place at the National Mall in Washington DC between 25 June and 10 July as part of the United States’ 250 birthday celebrations.
Initially, the line-up included Vanilla Ice, Martina McBride, The Commodores, C+C Music Factory, Young MC, Morris Day, Poison’s Bret Michaels, Flo Rida and Fab Morvan – the surviving member of the lip-syncing duo Milli Vanilli.
As one online commentator put it, it is “the worst lineup of musical acts I have ever seen.”
Shortly after the announcement was made, we reported that several artists had started dropping out.
Morris Day, best known as the lead singer of The Time (a group associated with Prince), took to Instagram to dispel the rumour he’d be playing, while Young MC also dropped out, saying that the artists “were never told about any political involvement with the event”.
Indeed, there was some confusion over the fair’s MAGA-affiliation – as well as the fact that “Freedom 250” is funded through a public-private partnership with funding from Trump-aligned tech firms Palantir and Oracle and federal contractors Deloitte and Lockheed Martin, among others. It is currently facing growing scrutiny from watchdog groups and members of Congress over the use of federal dollars for Trump-aligned events.
More acts continued to distance themselves from the event. Soul band The Commodores (once fronted by Lionel Richie) cancelled their appearance, followed by country musician Martina McBride and Brett Michaels also pulling the plug. They too stated that they had been led to believe the event would be non-political, before it was publicly announced as being associated with Trump.
Despite Milli Vanilli’s Fab Morvan stating he would be performing, a group called Real Milli Vanilli also announced they would not be performing, issuing a statement which read: “Others using the name ‘Milli Vanilli’ that appear on the advertisement should be considered a tribute band with no association vocally or musically to our sound or songs.”
Faced with a now pretty empty line-up of artists, Donald Trump responded with a lengthy rant posted to his Truth Social platform. In it, he said that he’ll be the replacement act…
“I understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’ having to do with their performance on Wednesday, he wrote. “So I am thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!), DONALD J. TRUMP, to take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists,’ and give a major speech, rallying the Country forward like I have done ever since being President!”
Yes, that’s right. Apparently, Trump believes he’s bigger than Elvis, the King of Rock’n’Roll.
This did not sit well with music lovers online, with one user stating: “The only thing Trump and Elvis have in common is their proclivity for underage girls” – a reference both to the Epstein Files and to the fact that Elvis met his future wife Priscilla Beaulieu when she was just 14 years old. He was 24 at the time.
Check out some of the reactions below:
Elsewhere, online commentators were “enjoying” the crash out of the Freedom 250 concerts:
The White House is backing a number of events to mark the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence in July. They also include a UFC fight on its South Lawn and a Grand Prix race in the US capital in August. The US will also release commemorative passports that feature a portrait of Trump.
The Great American State Fair starts on 25 June and takes place until 10 July. Freedom 250 organisers still continue to maintain that the event is nonpartisan.