{"id":717456,"date":"2026-06-05T19:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T19:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/717456\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T19:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T19:48:08","slug":"trump-cancels-freedom-250-concerts-announces-rally-making-himself-the-main-attraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/717456\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump cancels Freedom 250 concerts, announces rally making himself the main attraction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>Well, it\u2019s official. U.S. President Donald Trump has cancelled the Freedom 250 concerts planned for the National Mall in Washington, D.C., after most of the original artists backed out.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, for the June 24 event marking the U.S.&#8217;s 250th birthday, he&#8217;ll hold \u201cthe Greatest Rally, EVER! It will be special at every level \u2013 A Rally to end all Rallies!\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/116694027873070210\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">according to a post on <\/a>his Truth Social account.<\/p>\n<p>His announcement comes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/entertainment\/trump-may-cancel-america-250-concerts-give-speech-himself-9.7217985\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">nearly a week after<\/a> threatening to end the Freedom 250 event.<\/p>\n<p>The new iteration won\u2019t be devoid of music, however. <\/p>\n<p>Trump assured supporters that Lee Greenwood, a loyal Make America Great Again (MAGA) backer, would introduce him \u201dwith what has turned out to be one of the Greatest Hits of All Time, GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said New York Tenors member Christopher Macchio would also be lending his operatic timbre to sing &#8220;Nessun Dorma, Hallelujah, Ave Maria, God Bless America and others,\u201d the post says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot since the legendary Luciano Pavarotti has there been such a voice!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump again took aim at the artists who, one by one, left his concert series high and dry over the past couple of weeks. <\/p>\n<p>Most of them cited <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/entertainment\/america-250-nineties-concert-9.7215001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">concerns over the partisan tone<\/a> of the event as the reason for dropping out. <\/p>\n<p>Those who joined the exodus include Poison frontman Bret Michaels, American country singer Martina McBride, Morris Day and the Time, the Commodores, rapper Young MC and, most recently, Milli Vanilli&#8217;s Fab Morvan, who told CNN \u201cthis is not what I signed up for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t want singers with no talent, but big fees to put you to sleep, we\u2019ve told them all to stay home,\u201d Trump&#8217;s post said. \u201cAll we want is you, me, a few speakers, and the Greatest Music ever played, the same Music you have listened to for years!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanilla Ice (Robert Van Winkle) and Flo Rida remained the only two acts, out of <a href=\"https:\/\/freedom250.org\/news\/first-round-of-star-studded-entertainment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the nine originally scheduled<\/a>, set to perform at the concerts organized by the Trump administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Ice Ice Baby rapper previously made it clear he had no qualms about performing at the contentious event, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/vanilla-ice-freedom-250-dc-concert-series-putin-iran\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">telling CBS News<\/a> he\u2019d &#8220;go play for anybody,&#8221; including Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n<p>Hours after the series was cancelled, the rapper reportedly told<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/video\/6397589398112\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Fox News<\/a> he still hopes to be part of the rewritten event, saying &#8220;he&#8217;ll be there no matter what.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Military bands to be part of new event<\/p>\n<p>Safe to say, there will be no chart-topping rap hits of yesteryear performed at this reinvented extravaganza, replaced instead by \u201cthe wonderful U.S. Army Band \u2018Perishing\u2019s Own\u2019 and Armed Forces Choir, and \u2018The President\u2019s Own\u2019 Unites [sic] States Marine Band, with the Joint Armed Forces Chorus,\u201d the president wrote.<\/p>\n<p>He promised performances of \u201call of your favourite hits,\u201d ending the statement by saying the main attraction would be \u201ca fine and highly dignified gentleman known as, President DONALD J. TRUMP!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/freedom250\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">its website,<\/a> Freedom 250 says the anniversary event is about \u201ccelebrating the triumph of the American spirit.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Other events and commemorations to mark the U.S.&#8217;s birthday have attracted criticism for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/player\/play\/video\/9.7183683\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">glorifying Trump<\/a>, including efforts to put his face on commemorative coins, his signature on bills and his face on a special passport.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75],"class_list":["post-717456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717456","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=717456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}