Trump’s Great American State Fair Is Running Out of Acts |
When a colleague first shared the announced headliners for this summer’s Great American State Fair concert series on the National Mall, my first thought was, Is that a joke? It wasn’t, but now it sort of is.
Here’s the list of performers, most of whom were popular in the late ’80s and ’90s, as released on Wednesday by Freedom 250, the White House–affiliated organization led by Trump-appointed CEO Keith Krach that’s planning many of this year’s D.C. events celebrating America’s big birthday:
- Martina McBride | June 25 - C C Music Factory | June 26 - Vanilla Ice | June 26 - Milli Vanilli | June 26 - Young MC | June 26 - The Commodores | June 27 - Morris Day and the Time | June 27 - Flo Rida | July 2 - Bret Michaels | July 3
- Martina McBride | June 25
- C C Music Factory | June 26
- Vanilla Ice | June 26
- Milli Vanilli | June 26
- The Commodores | June 27
- Morris Day and the Time | June 27
- Bret Michaels | July 3
Two days later, the lineup has become yet another Trump 2.0 fiasco. Amid apparent backlash from fans, five acts have backed out, leaving three of the five nights without any headliners at all, and (original) members of two of the other acts have spoken out against the event and distanced themselves from the zombie versions of their bands who may still perform there.
Not this time, Morris Day said on Wednesday on Instagram:
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The 59-year-old Young MC alleged that he and other artists were booked under false pretenses, writing in a Facebook post that:
I HAVE INFORMED MY AGENTS THAT I WILL NOT BE PERFORMING AT THE FREEDOM 250 EVENT. The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event. And despite the claims by the organizers that the event is non-partisan, SPIN magazine describes it as Trump-backed”. I hope to perform in D.C. in the near future at an event that is not so politically charged.
I HAVE INFORMED MY AGENTS THAT I WILL NOT BE PERFORMING AT THE FREEDOM 250........