Trump to headline Great American State Fair after music acts cancel

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Trump’s advisers worked quickly to organize a rally, set for June 24, after several performers slated for the concert series to be held this summer on the National Mall dropped out.

🧵 NEW WaPo: Trump to headline at Freedom 250 Great American State Fair after music acts cancel.

Freedom 250 spokesperson said yesterday that Trump's Freedom 250 is 'inherently nonpolitical.'

So Trump will perform at his 'inherently nonpolitical' Freedom 250 event.

wapo.st/3PwQEyL

— Nancy Levine Stearns (@nancylevinestearns.bsky.social) 2026-05-30T20:13:55.601Z

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/30/trump-headline-great-american-state-fair-after-music-acts-cancel

President Donald Trump will headline an opening ceremony for the Great American State Fair on the National Mall next month after many of the musical performers slated for the event canceled, citing the event’s associations with him.

The Great American State Fair — organized by Freedom 250, a Trump-aligned entity he created by executive order to plan semiquincentennial events — this week announced a lineup of performers. More than half canceled shortly thereafter, including Martina McBride and Bret Michaels, claiming they had not known about the organizing group’s connections to the president.

After Trump said on his Truth Social platform Saturday that he understood “Artists are getting ‘the yips’” about performing and suggested headlining the event himself, Danielle Alvarez, an adviser to Freedom 250, confirmed to The Washington Post that Trump will now kick off an opening event for the fair.

“As the visionary behind the Great American State Fair, we are excited to announce that President Trump will personally kick off this historic celebration on Wednesday, June 24 in an opening ceremony celebrating America’s 250th birthday,” Alvarez said in a statement first shared with The Post. She called the multiday event “a World’s Fair celebrating the people, traditions, innovations, and spirit that make America the greatest nation on Earth.”.....

Prior to Freedom 250 confirming the newly planned speech, Trump in his Truth Social post wrote that he was “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, 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!”

[buzzycrumbhunger]

1. It'll be the biggest

… FLOP in history, even better than his attempt at his big military parade that no one showed up for.

I love this for him, even though he’s not self aware enough to grasp the concept of his own epic failure.

[dalton99a]

2. All you want to know about windmills, showers, big strong men, cognitive testing, and the ballroom

[2MuchNoise]

4. Gee, I can't wait.

[sop]

3. He can always wow the crowd with his famous Trump Dance.

[jmowreader]

5. Trump hung around pro wrestling too much

Those guys call this Kayfabe.

My current theory is this was just going to be a Trump Rally and Cage Match from the start. But you can’t just put up on the sign that you’re gonna celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary by letting Donald Trump rant for six hours about how mean everyone is and how wonderful he is. So, you throw up a poster saying all these obscure bands are going to play for the people then…when they all pull out “we are going to let the president speak to America!”

[greatauntoftriplets]

6. This may be what he wanted all along.

He lives to be the center of attention.

[yellowcanine]

7. Trump is going to replace a musical performance with a speech?

Or is he going to do his little clenched fist “dance” to canned music? How adorable!

[BigmanPigman]

8. I just watched Harry Sisson's podcast

and he read and showed some of the bat shit crazy posts.

The part about Elvis alone is enough to send him into a loony bin permanently.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. Even trump's biggest fans do not want a trump speech instead of music at this "festival." I really hope that trump give

Even trump's biggest fans do not want a trump speech instead of music at this "festival." I really hope that trump gives one of his hour plus speeches.

Trump's biggest fans reject his 'lame and boring' new proposal: 'This is so egotistical'

— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2026-05-30T23:30:12Z

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2676976777/

Some of Donald Trump's most reliable supporters are pushing back after the White House announced the president would deliver a speech as the replacement for artists who pulled out of the America 250 celebration, with critics on the right calling the move self-aggrandizing and tone-deaf.

The White House promoted the event as an "AMERICA IS BACK Rally!" but prominent conservative voices were not impressed.

Matt Walsh, the right-wing commentator and one of Trump's most prominent media allies, called the decision an unforced error. "Replacing a concert with a speech is lame and boring," Walsh wrote on X. "Just go out and get real musicians to play. Don't cancel the concert just because a bunch of washed up old has-beens canceled. There are hundreds of artists out there who might not be famous but would absolutely leap at the chance to play on a stage like this."

Jenna Ellis, the former Trump campaign lawyer who was among those charged in the Georgia election interference case, was more direct. "America 250 is not about Trump," she wrote. "This is so egotistical."

Conservative commentator Jackie Chea made a similar point, suggesting Trump "shouldn't make the concert into a rally" and instead should "channel his Show Biz days and let new artists compete with patriotic songs."