As stars drop, Trump floats canceling Freedom 250 concert to give his own speech

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. Trump to headline Great American State Fair after music acts cancel

Last edited Sat May 30, 2026, 07:48 PM - Edit history (1)

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!”