Freedom 250 Concert Fizzles; Judge Orders Trump’s Name Off Kennedy Center

Freedom 250 – the concert series tied with the Great American State Fair celebration of the country’s semiquincentennial — appears to be imperiled as more artists have dropped off the bill with President Donald Trump posting on Truth Social “Cancel it.”

Country singer Martina McBride, who was arguably the biggest act of the nine originally announced, pulled out May 29.

“I would like to talk to you and clear the air,” McBride wrote on social media. “I will not be performing at the Great American State Fair on June 25th.”

“I saw it as just a bigger version of so many state fairs I have performed at over the years, celebrating community and what makes each state special. Sounds fun, right? Wholesome even. Yesterday things started changing and what we were told is, in fact, not what is happening,” she wrote. “I’ve spent my entire career singing songs about real people with real voices. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to be a voice for those who have felt like they didn’t have one. It greatly upsets me that any fan who has been moved by my music may now feel like I’m abandoning the meaning behind those songs. I assure you, that is not the case. I appreciate every single fan who has reached out. I hope to get back to the D.C. area very soon.”

Young MC, Morris Day & The Time, The Commodores and Bret Michaels also pulled out within days of the lineup announcement. Vanilla Ice has remained committed to performing (the rapper has performed at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in the past). Flo Rida has yet to comment. C+C Music Factory’s Freedom Williams posted a lengthy, expletive-leaden rant that indicated while he was no great fan of Trump’s, he wouldn’t succumb to internet pressure to pull out. Milli Vanilli is a more confusing question. Fab Morvan, who was one of the faces of the group that fell from grace when it was revealed it was not Morvan and the late Rob Pilatus actually singing the vocals, indicated he will perform. The five-member group who actually sang on the records — they tour as The Real Milli Vanilli — have said they are not performing.

If in fact the concerts are cancelled, the president had a new idea: he’d instead hold a campaign-style “Make America Great Again” rally.

“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,” he posted on Truth Social. “

In an earlier post, the president said he is “the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World” and “the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime.”

In another blow, a federal judge ordered Trump’s name be removed from the Kennedy Center. Long a bipartisan institution, Trump installed allies to its board, which then appointed him chairman and added his name to the building, a move Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the Federal District found to violate the Kennedy Center’s enacting legislation.

“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” he wrote.

Cooper ordered Trump’s name be removed within two weeks, though Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said the administration may appeal the judge’s ruling, which could put a hold on any moves.

Cooper also blocked plans to close the Kennedy Center this summer for renovations.

Cooper said the board had been “derelict” in not considering what effect the closure would have on the programming and its duty to maintain a memorial to President John Kennedy as envisioned in the 1964 law that created the center. He called the board’s decision “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.” 

Trump responded by saying he may pull back from his involvement at the center altogether.

“Judge Cooper and the Radical Left would rather see it DIE than have President Trump transform it into something that everyone could be proud of,” Trump said on Truth Social. He later said he had  “canceled my involvement with the failing and unsafe to be in Kennedy Center, because a Highly Conflicted, Crooked Federal Judge.” 

“Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND,'” he wrote, saying he’d direct the Commerce Department to arrange a “full and complete transfer” of the center’s control to Congress.