The president posted a lengthy rant after five acts pulled out of the summer event celebrating the United States’ birthday.

Trump may perform at Freedom 250, suggests scrapping concert for MAGA rally after several musicians drop out

The president posted a lengthy rant after five acts pulled out of the summer event celebrating the United States' birthday.

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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on May 31, 2026 2:25 p.m. ET

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Donald Trump on May 22, 2026. Credit:

Roberto Schmidt/Getty

- Several performers pulled out of the Freedom 250 concert series within two days after its lineup was announced.

- President Trump blasted the musicians who've dropped out of the Washington, D.C., event, suggesting that he perform instead.

- He also floated the idea of scrapping the June concert series — which will celebrate the United States' birthday — and proposed hosting a MAGA rally instead.

The show must go on — unless, of course, a political rally replaces it.

Donald Trump is proposing a couple of seismic changes to the Great American State Fair, a series of concerts, exhibits, and tributes organized by Freedom 250 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States' independence.

Though the series is being billed as a nonpartisan event, several of the scheduled performers have withdrawn from its lineup, citing concerns about how the event was originally presented to them and how it has been addressed online since the musicians were announced. Those who have dropped out include Morris Day, Young MC, Martina McBride, Bret Michaels, and the Commodores.

On Saturday afternoon, Trump offered his first solution to the shake-up in a lengthy Truth Social post: Perhaps he would simply perform at the Freedom 250 event instead.

"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," he wrote. "The man who loves our country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the greatest president in history (THE GOAT!), DONALD J. TRUMP, to take the place of these highly paid, third-rate 'artists,' and give a major speech, rallying the country forward like I have done ever since being president!"

Young MC, Martina McBride, and Bret Michaels have all dropped out of the Freedom 250 concert series.

Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty; Jason Davis/Getty; Cindy Ord/Getty

Trump added that he has no interest in performances from "so-called 'artists' that get paid far too much money who aren't happy."

He continued, "I only want to be surrounded by happy people, smart people, successful people, and people that know how to WIN. So, by copy of this TRUTH, I am ordering my representatives to look at the feasibility of doing an AMERICA IS BACK Rally on Wednesday, [in] Washington, D.C., same time, same location. Only great patriots invited. It will be a wild and beautiful celebration of America!"

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Hours later, Trump was back on social media with an entirely new idea: Organizers could just scrap the concert series and replace it with a MAGA event.

"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," the president wrote on Saturday evening. "Cancel it, just like I canceled my involvement with the failing and unsafe-to-be-in Kennedy Center, because a highly conflicted, crooked federal judge said that I should not be allowed to spend my time and money in order to MAKE THE CENTER GREAT AGAIN."

On Wednesday, Freedom 250, an organization closely affiliated with Trump that claims to be nonpartisan, announced the lineup for the Great American State Fair. The backlash was immediate, and artists swiftly began pulling out or denying that they had ever agreed to perform.

Donald Trump on March 11, 2026.

Andrew Harnik/Getty

Morris Day and the Time took to Instagram to deny "rumors" of their involvement in the event, writing, "Morris Day & the Time will not be performing at the 'Great American State Fair.'" In the caption, Day added, "It's a no for me."

In their own statement, the Commodores said they would not be participating: "Our music has always been our voice, and we choose not to publicly affiliate with any single political party," they said. "We support the betterment of all Americans."

On Thursday, McBride wrote that she was initially "presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event" but that the concert series "turned out to be misleading."

Vanilla Ice and Flo Rida still plan to perform at the Freedom 250 concert series.

Johnny Louis/Getty; Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Michaels, who withdrew on Friday, echoed this in a lengthy statement, writing, "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." He added that his exit was fueled by "threats and safety concerns" rather than politics.

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As of Sunday, C+C Music Factory, Vanilla Ice, Milli Vanilli's Fab Morvan, and Flo Rida remain scheduled to perform in the concert series. In a statement to the Associated Press, Vanilla Ice said he was "proud to help celebrate America's 250th Anniversary!"

The Great American State Fair is set to kick off on June 25 and run through July 10 at Washington, D.C.'s National Mall.

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