The musical lineup for Donald Trump’s Freedom 250 Great American State Fair celebration was announced on Wednesday. By Thursday, performers were already bailing. By Friday morning, the bill had collapsed into something closer to a hostage situation than a concert.
The musical line-up from the Freedom 250 page:
Special Guests, Speakers, & Performers
Music Icons
Martina McBride| June 25 Four-time CMA Female Vocalist of the Year and Grammy-nominated performer known for powerhouse country hits like “Independence Day” and “A Broken Wing.C+C Music Factory| June 26 Grammy-winning dance music group behind global hits like “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)”- Vanilla Ice | June 26 Multi-platinum rapper and pop culture icon best known for “Ice Ice Baby”
Milli Vanilli| June 26 Internationally recognized pop duo known for chart-topping hits, including “Girl You Know It’s True”Young MC| June 26 Grammy Award-winning rapper best known for the iconic hit “Bust a Move” and high-energy 90s hip-hop performances.The Commodores| June 27 Legendary funk and soul band behind timeless hits like “Brick House,” “Easy,” and “Three Times a Lady”Morris Day and The Time| June 27 Iconic funk and R&B group known for electrifying performances and classics like “Jungle Love” and “The Bird”- Flo Rida | July 2 Multi-platinum global hitmaker behind chart-topping anthems like “Low,” “Right Round,” and “Good Feeling”
Bret Michaels| July 3 ulti-platinum rock icon and frontman of Poison, known for legendary hits like “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” and “Nothin’ But a Good Time”
The “Great American State Fair,” scheduled for June 25 through July 10 on the National Mall, is the centerpiece of the Trump administration’s federally backed celebration of America’s 250th birthday.
It is run by Freedom 250, a nonprofit founded through a Trump executive order and led by CEO Keith Krach, a Trump appointee. The website insists the event is “nonpartisan.” The performers are saying something different.
The dropouts
The original nine-act lineup — already mocked as a “lack of A-list musical talent” willing to perform for the president — included Vanilla Ice, Martina McBride, C+C Music Factory, Young MC, Morris Day and The Time, Bret Michaels, Flo Rida, Milli Vanilli, and The Commodores.
Within twenty-four hours, the bill started bleeding out.
Morris Day and The Time got out first. “Contrary to rumor, Morris Day & The Time will not be performing at the ‘Great American State Fair,’” Day posted on Facebook. “It’s a no for me.”
Young MC went next. “I have informed my agents that I will not be performing at the Freedom 250 event,” he wrote on Facebook. “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.”
C+C Music Factory’s Freedom Williams posted an Instagram video saying his agent didn’t mention Trump when the gig was booked. “I told my agent, yeah, no, I ain’t good to do that,” Williams said. “I don’t f**k with Trump. I don’t give a f**k about Trump. I know the type of f***ing anarchy he creates. But the day I let you motherf***s tell me what to do, is the day I die.”
The Commodores were next. “Our music has always been our voice and we choose not to publicly affiliate with any single political party,” the group posted. “We support the betterment of all Americans.”
Martina McBride — the country star who, on paper, looked least likely to walk away from a Trump event — withdrew Thursday night. “I was presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading,” she wrote.
“I asked lots of questions and was assured that this was a nonpartisan event that was meant to celebrate ALL 50 states… Yesterday, things started changing and what we were told is, in fact, not what is happening.” Sheryl Crow, Ashley McBryde, and Jason Isbell publicly cheered her decision in the comments.
Bret Michaels of Poison made it five on Friday morning. “Unfortunately, what was presented to us as a celebration of our country has evolved into something much more divisive than what I agreed to be a part of,” the rocker wrote.
He also said his team had received threats. “Concerns have also been raised regarding the safety of my fans, band, crew, family and myself, including threats that are completely unfounded and unforgivable.”
Jodie Rocco of Milli Vanilli told the Associated Press the group was “shocked” to see their name on the flyer at all. In a statement to Billboard, the group said “the original/real vocalists of Milli Vanilli” will not be performing.
That’s six acts publicly out. Of the original nine, only Vanilla Ice has confirmed he’s still showing up. His manager told Rolling Stone: “Vanilla Ice is contracted and will perform at the Great American Fair at the National Mall on Friday, June 26. He is proud to help celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary!” Flo Rida has said nothing.
So that’s the headline act: Vanilla Ice. With a possible Flo Rida appearance. To celebrate two and a half centuries of the American republic.
“Nonpartisan” is doing a lot of work
Freedom 250 spokesperson Rachel Reisner told The Hill the organization is “a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) dedicated to uniting Americans around the nation’s 250th anniversary.”
That is not how Keith Krach describes it on his own website. “President Donald J. Trump pledged that our nation’s 250th birthday would be celebrated in a way worthy of our history, our values, and our future,” Krach wrote.
“To help realize that vision at national scale, he launched Freedom 250… I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity to execute his vision for Freedom 250.”
That is the founder of the organization. Naming Trump. Calling it his vision.
It is also not how congressional Democrats describe it. The Associated Press reports Democrats have raised concerns that Freedom 250 functions as “a Trump-controlled end run around a separate commission charted by Congress a decade ago to prepare semiquincentennial events.”
It is also not how the organization’s own May 17 “Rededicate 250” religious event came off — that one featured Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, JD Vance, Mike Johnson, Franklin Graham, and Paula White-Cain, with Trump appearing on video to read scripture.
If this is nonpartisan, words have no meaning.
What McBride’s fans saw that the organizers didn’t
The reaction to Martina McBride’s planned appearance is worth pausing on, because it reveals something the Freedom 250 organizers either missed or didn’t care about. McBride’s signature song, “Independence Day,” is about a battered woman who burns down her abuser’s house. It is a song about a woman with no options finally choosing the only option left to her.
Fans were furious at the thought of that song being co-opted as a patriotic anthem for an administration that has spent its second term gutting Title IX protections, defunding domestic violence services, deporting victims of trafficking, and putting people who openly brag about treating women as property in Cabinet positions.
“I asked myself how a woman can sing a song like ‘Independence Day’ while simultaneously supporting those who facilitate the very issues that you sang about in that song,” one fan wrote on McBride’s Instagram. McBride apparently agreed.
The counter-concert
While the Freedom 250 lineup was imploding, Bruce Springsteen was at Nationals Park on Wednesday night announcing the Power to the People Festival — a one-day protest concert organized with Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and scheduled for October 3 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, one month before the midterms.
The bill is what an A-list lineup actually looks like: Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, Joan Baez, Brittany Howard, Dropkick Murphys, Jack Black, Serj Tankian, Cypress Hill, Killer Mike, Taylor Momsen, Matt Cameron, The Linda Lindas, and Tom Morello. Proceeds benefit VoteRiders and HeadCount.
“The Gestapo tactics of this president and this administration will not stand here,” Springsteen told the Nationals Park crowd. “This American tragedy can only be stopped by the American people: you. There is no one coming to save us. We’ve got to do it ourselves. So join us and let’s fight for the America that we love. Do you hear me, Washington?”
He played “Streets of Minneapolis,” his song about Renée Good and Alex Pretti, killed by federal immigration agents in January, and led the crowd in an “ICE Out Now” chant.
What this tells you
Two stories are running in parallel here, and they tell you everything about where the country actually is.
Story one: a federally backed celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, with a multi-million dollar budget, the full weight of the White House behind it, the National Mall as its stage — and they couldn’t book anyone famous enough to take the gig. The talent they did book is bailing as fast as their publicists can write statements. The headliner is Vanilla Ice.
Story two: a one-day benefit announced from a tour stage with no federal money and no public-private nonprofit structure pulled together, headlined by Springsteen and the Foo Fighters, with a bench deep enough to sell out an arena three times over.
This is what the cultural ledger looks like under Trump’s second term. Artists know what the administration is doing — at the border, in Gaza, in Iran, at protests, in courtrooms, in detention centers.
They are not interested in lending their names to its image rehab. The ones who said yes to Freedom 250 are saying so because they didn’t know what they were saying yes to. The minute they found out, they pulled the eject lever.
The Great American State Fair will go on. Vanilla Ice will be there. The rest of us will be paying attention to who else shows up — and feeling thankful for the artists who bailed.
