As stars drop, Trump floats canceling Freedom 250 concert to give his own speech
WASHINGTON – After prominent artists pulled out of a series of planned concerts celebrating the nation's 250th anniversary, President Donald Trump said he was considering canceling the musical performances and giving a speech himself instead.
In a social media post on Saturday, May 30, the president criticized the musicians, whom he did not name specifically, for getting what he called "the yips." He appeared to be referencing the collapsing lineup of musical superstars for the Great American State Fair, a 16-day event organized by the president's nonprofit Freedom 250.
Country star Martina McBride and R&B group The Commodores were among the latest cancelations for the concert, which is slated to run June 25 through July 10 on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Both said they were initially under the impression the event would be entirely nonpartisan....
Amid mounting cancelations, Trump said he was thinking about organizing what he characterized in his post as an "AMERICA IS BACK Rally."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/05/30/trump-great-american-state-fair-speech-freedom-250/90330854007/
= new reply since forum marked as read
can catch some zzzzzzzzzz’s
Last edited Sat May 30, 2026, 07:48 PM - Edit history (1)
Trump’s advisers worked quickly to organize a rally, set for June 24, after several performers slated for the concert series to be held this summer on the National Mall dropped out.
🧵 NEW WaPo: Trump to headline at Freedom 250 Great American State Fair after music acts cancel.
— Nancy Levine Stearns (@nancylevinestearns.bsky.social) 2026-05-30T20:13:55.601Z
Freedom 250 spokesperson said yesterday that Trump's Freedom 250 is 'inherently nonpolitical.'
So Trump will perform at his 'inherently nonpolitical' Freedom 250 event.
wapo.st/3PwQEyL
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/30/trump-headline-great-american-state-fair-after-music-acts-cancel
The Great American State Fair — organized by Freedom 250, a Trump-aligned entity he created by executive order to plan semiquincentennial events — this week announced a lineup of performers. More than half canceled shortly thereafter, including Martina McBride and Bret Michaels, claiming they had not known about the organizing group’s connections to the president.
After Trump said on his Truth Social platform Saturday that he understood “Artists are getting ‘the yips’” about performing and suggested headlining the event himself, Danielle Alvarez, an adviser to Freedom 250, confirmed to The Washington Post that Trump will now kick off an opening event for the fair.
“As the visionary behind the Great American State Fair, we are excited to announce that President Trump will personally kick off this historic celebration on Wednesday, June 24 in an opening ceremony celebrating America’s 250th birthday,” Alvarez said in a statement first shared with The Post. She called the multiday event “a World’s Fair celebrating the people, traditions, innovations, and spirit that make America the greatest nation on Earth.”.....
Prior to Freedom 250 confirming the newly planned speech, Trump in his Truth Social post wrote that he was “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!”
