Recommendations of the Editorial team
Donald Trump wants to scrap the Freedom 250 concert and instead organize a Make America Great Again rally. His latest move follows his original suggestion to perform at the event himself – after numerous booked artists dropped out at short notice. The concert was billed as the “Great American State Fair on National Mall” in Washington DC.
“We should have a huge MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY for 250 instead instead of booking overpriced singers that no one wants to hear, whose music is boring and yet they do nothing but whine,” he wrote on Truth Social late Saturday afternoon. “Cancellations – just like I canceled my involvement in the failed and unsafe Kennedy Center because a highly biased, corrupt federal judge ruled that I should not be allowed to use my time and money to MAKE THE CENTER GREAT AGAIN, yes, even greater than ever!”
Trump still doesn’t seem to have gotten over US Federal Judge Casey Cooper’s ruling. Cooper ruled Friday that the Kennedy Center could not bear “any other official name or public commemorative addition based on a unilateral decision of the board.” The judge also ordered that all signs with Trump’s name must be removed from the Kennedy Center within two weeks.
Trump is lashing out
In his Saturday post, Trump followed up: “It would also have been nice to see a Republican-Democratic alliance bring the Center back to life. The Kennedy Center is broken, unsafe and broke – and has been for years! Judge Cooper also determined that the Center’s senior board had no authority to add the name ‘TRUMP,’ even though hundreds of millions of dollars of my time and money will be necessary for its successful rebirth. So the Kennedy Center will now collapse – structurally.” financially. Judge Cooper and his wife Amy Jeffress (conflict of interest, anyone?) should be ashamed. Judge Cooper, like numerous other corrupt judges in my cases, should be removed from office MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
On Wednesday, the Freedom 250 concert – organized by Keith Krach, a Trump confidant – announced its strange line-up: Martina McBride, Flo Rida and the Commodores were on the list alongside nineties acts like Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice.
Shortly after the announcement, many of the booked acts – including Morris Day and the Time and Young MC – said they would not be performing at the Freedom 250 concert. “For me that’s a no,” Day wrote on social media.
Bait and switch for the artists
Young MC told VIBE magazine on Thursday: “I had no idea it was considered a ‘Trump-supported’ event – that was new to me. My stance has always been: tell me what the event is, what it’s about, who you are, and then give me the choice whether I want to be there or not. I was never given that choice. I was told one thing and then it was a bait-and-switch game. All the comments I got from the artists who dropped out “I saw it show: They all thought it was a normal show in DC.”
By the end of the week, Martina McBride, Bret Michaels and the Commodores had also left the concert series, which was scheduled to take place on the National Mall from June 25th to July 10th.
Shortly after taking office, Trump set up a task force to prepare the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the state. He took over the chairmanship himself, and Vice President JD Vance was appointed vice chairman.
