When artists start bailing on your big celebration, there’s usually a reason—and President Trump just made it clear he’s not taking the cancellations well.
The commander-in-chief is scheduled to host the opening ceremony for Freedom 250’s Great American State Fair on June 24 at The National Mall in Washington, D.C., marking America’s 250th birthday. But the event has hit a serious snag: several high-profile performers have pulled out, and Trump’s response? Cancel the whole thing.
On Saturday, Trump posted a fiery message on Truth Social, tearing into what he called“overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain.”He then demanded the cancellation of the Freedom 250 ceremony, comparing it to“the failing and unsafe to be in Kennedy Center.”It’s a reference to his ongoing feud with a federal judge who recently blocked his Kennedy Center renovations and ordered Trump’s name removed from the venue.
The exodus has been substantial. The Commodores, Martina McBride, Morris Day and the Time, Poison’s Bret Michaels, and rapper Young MC have all backed out. According to the performers, they felt misled about the event’s supposedly nonpartisan theme—a claim that’s hard to square given that Trump launched Freedom 250 last year and it’s currently being run by former Trump State Department appointee Keith Krach.
So far, Flo Rida, Vanilla Ice, and Freedom Williams still plan to perform if the event moves forward. Whether it actually does remains to be seen—and whether a scaled-down lineup of classic-era hip-hop and rock acts is what organizers envisioned for celebrating America’s founding quarter-millennium is another question entirely.
The irony? Canceling the event over artists who don’t want to participate might actually be the most Trump move possible.
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Local Lawton
Local Lawton is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.