Trump's "Freedom 250" concert implodes spectacularly

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It was going to be so beautiful: A spectacular concert to celebrate 250 years of freedom and democracy, featuring some of the greatest musical acts this nation has produced.

Okay, maybe not the greatest, but they were definitely musical acts! Depending on whether you count Milli Vanilli, or more accurately, one of the two guys who pretended to sing in Milli Vanilli. Along with a guy who was in C+C Music Factory. And Bret Michaels of Poison. For anyone itching to stand outside in the baking Washington summer sun to hear some guys in their 60s wheeze their way through “Girl You Know It’s True” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” the disappointment must be crushing.

It now appears that this concert, part of the Freedom 250 celebration and the most awe-inspiring assemblage of talent since your local middle school’s last Battle of the Bands, will not be taking place after all. One after another, the 1990s-era performers pulled out, many saying that when they booked the event they didn’t know it was going to be political.

In other words, once they realized the event was all about Donald Trump, most of them wanted nothing to do with it.

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Despite the fact that Vanilla Ice was still planning to perform, Trump announced on Saturday that he was pulling the plug, and would instead make the event just another Trump rally:

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com

Trump: “I understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’ having to do with their performance on Wednesday, so I am 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, DONALD J. TRUMP”

Sat, 30 May 2026 16:06:50 GMT

View on Bluesky

The president then had an epic crashout over the imploded concert, posting later Saturday that “we 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. Cancel it.” (Why Trump would have wanted to book such “boring” musical acts in the first place remains unclear.)

So Trump’s long-held dream to take over American culture in the same way he took over American politics remains unfulfilled. For all the ways he has affected the country, he is not a tastemaker or an avatar of coolness; when the culture speaks of Trump, it’s mostly to rail at him and reject him.

But this is not a fight he and his supporters will give up easily.