{"id":704905,"date":"2026-05-31T01:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T01:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/704905\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T01:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T01:46:08","slug":"trump-to-headline-americas-250th-anniversary-celebration-after-artists-drop-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/704905\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump to headline America\u2019s 250th anniversary celebration after artists drop out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

‘I understand Artists are getting \u2018the yips\u2019 having to do with their performance,’ Trump posted to his social media platform Truth Social Saturday.KENT NISHIMURA\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

An upcoming celebration of America\u2019s 250th anniversary, \u201cThe Great American State Fair,\u201d recently had several musical guests back out partly over the event\u2019s ties to President Donald Trump. Now, Trump himself is slated to headline the festivities, the organizers said Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand Artists are getting \u2018the yips\u2019 having to do with their performance,\u201d Trump posted to his social media platform Truth Social Saturday, adding that he was thinking of bringing \u201cthe 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 \u2018Artists.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The group organizing the June fair on Washington\u2019s National Mall, Freedom 250, confirmed the billing in a statement, writing, \u201cwe are excited to announce that President Trump will personally kick off this historic celebration on Wednesday, June 24.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s social media post twice referenced him holding a rally \u201cWednesday,\u201d without a specific date. The White House did not immediately clarify the discrepancy.<\/p>\n

Danielle Alvarez, a spokesperson for Freedom 250, emphasized the broader fair that is scheduled from June 25 through July 10 includes an array of exhibits, family friendly attractions, musical performances, flyovers and more.<\/p>\n

Trump was dismissive of the acts that backed out, suggesting in a follow-up post that the solution is to \u201cCancel it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should have a giant MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY, for 250, instead of having overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain,\u201d Trump said on social media.<\/p>\n

Freedom 250 is billed as non-partisan, but was launched last year by Trump and is led by a former State Department appointee from Trump\u2019s first term. Several artists, including Bret Michaels, the Commodores and Martina McBride dropped out last week.<\/p>\n

Michaels and other artists have said that they were misled about the theme of the shows or were otherwise wary of being caught up in a political fight. McBride, in a statement on Instagram, said she had been \u201cpresented with an opportunity to perform at a non-partisan event but that turned out to be misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other artists plan to attend, including Flo Rida, Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice. The latter\u2019s representative previously said that the Ice Ice Baby rapper was \u201cproud to help celebrate America\u2019s 250th Anniversary!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: ‘I understand Artists are getting \u2018the yips\u2019 having to do with their performance,’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,75,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-704905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-entertainment","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}