Trump Says ‘Cancel it’ About Concert Series, Says He’d Rather Lead Rally

President Donald J. Trump is now saying “cancel it” about the concert series his Freedom 250 organization is putting on in June and July, after five of the nine artists announced backed out within 48 hours of the shows being announced.

He wrote in a Truth Social post Saturday night: “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.”

Trump did not mention that the organization he founded, Freedom 250, was in charge of booking the series — and that at least two of the artists he described as “overpriced” and “third rate,” Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli’s Fab Morvan, had enthusiastically expressed that they were still excited about playing their gigs on the National Lawn, even after some of their counterparts made public exits.

This was Trump’s second Truth Social post of the day about the troubled concert series. In an earlier message, he had already suggested opening the Great American State Fair (of which the Freedom 250 concerts were a part) with a rally in which he would be the main attraction.

“I understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’ having to do with their performance on Wednesday,” he wrote then (although the concerts are spread out across different days over a period of weeks, beginning in late June). He then announced, “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, 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!”

In his subsequent message Saturday night, he did not go into detail about whether he wanted to cancel the entire series of concerts or just the ones with artists who’ve backed out. He addressed the concert controversy as a prelude to a weave about the legal battle over the Kennedy Center and the “crooked judges” who have ruled against him.

“Cancel it,” he wrote late Saturday, “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, actually, far greater than it ever was before! It would have also been nice to see a Republican/Democrat union bring it back to life. The Kennedy Center is broken, unsafe, and $busted, and has been for many years! Judge Cooper also stated that the highly prestigious Board of the Center was not authorized to add on the name ‘TRUMP’ despite the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars of my time and money will be necessary for its successful reincarnation. So now, the Kennedy Center will collapse, both structurally and financially. Judge Cooper and his wife, Amy Jeffress (obfuscation anyone?), should be ashamed of themselves. Judge Cooper, like numerous other Crooked Judges on my cases, should be IMPEACHED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

Although he did not provide much context for these statements or name names, Trump was clearly alluding to the wave of artists dropping out of the “Freedom 250” series, with more than half of the nine scheduled acts having exited since the concerts were first announced Wednesday.

In his Truth Social statement, Trump continued, “Two years ago, the United States was DEAD. Now we have the ‘HOTTEST’ Country anywhere in the World. I don’t want so-called ‘Artists’ that get paid far too much money, who aren’t happy. 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, Washington, D.C., same time, same location. Only Great Patriots invited — It will be a Wild and Beautiful Celebration of America!”

The president’s statement was confusing on first blush, with no clear reference to which “Wednesday” he meant. That was cleared up when the Washington Post reached a Freedom 250 rep to explain what the president had in mind, and when. In a story with the headline “Trump to headline Great American State Fair after music acts cancel,” the Post reported that Trump planned to headline an event on Wednesday, June 24.

“As the visionary behind the Great American State Fair,” said Danielle Alvarez, an adviser to Freedom 250, “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.” The Post also cited anonymous Trump advisers as saying they “were quickly working to make his suggestion of being the fair’s opening act a reality.”

If Trump does make himself the main attraction at an event kicking off the series, and gives a speech in his typical fashion, it could serve to confirm the suspicions of the artists who pulled out that Forever 250 is not as wholly nonpartisan as originally advertised.

The president’s two Truth Social statements came in the wake of several days of headlines about artists pulling out of the Freedom 250 concert series, which was (and perhaps still is) set to take place June 25 through July 10. The sponsoring organization, Freedom 250, is a nonprofit Trump founded as a public-private partnership to host events celebrating the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.

Some of Trump’s associates have already been critical of the artists who dropped out of the concert series. Richard Grenell, who until recently served as the Trump-appointed head of the Kennedy Center, tweeted angry thoughts about country singer Martina McBride exiting the concert series, posting the message: “You’ve always been a woke Lefty.”

Five out of nine artists announced for the concert series have pulled out after saying they were misled about aspects of the concerts or were concerned they had become divisive: Morris Day, Bret Michaels, Martina McBride, Young MC and the Commodores. Only two of the nine have publicly committed to seeing the shows through, regardless of the controversy: Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli’s Fab Morvan. Another artist, C&C Music Factory’s Freedom Williams, said he was on the fence about proceeding, and Flo Rida has not publicly addressed the firestorm at all.

The materials for Freedom 250 describe the events being put on before and after the nation’s birthday as nonpartisan. Doubts about that have been expressed by Democratic congressmen and others who point out that Trump founded the organization as a seeming alternative to the America 250 initiative that was set up for Congress to produce the same types of events. A prayer rally recently held on the National Mall under the Freedom 250 banner was criticized for seeming more like a MAGA event than a truly bipartisan or ecumenical gathering.

The concert series was announced Wednesday morning, and the artists listed faced immediate backlash from many of their fans, upset about what political signals they felt the musicians might be sending about aligning themselves with Trump. Within hours, Morris Day and the Time were the first to disassociate themselves, with Day posting that his listed appearance was only a “rumor.” Young MC soon followed, saying he had been misled about the series being nonpartisan in nature. Then followed the Commodores, McBride and Michaels, who stressed that he had wanted to do the show to promote veterans awareness but was distressed that it had become “divisive.”

But on Friday, Vanilla Ice declared he was in for the duration. ““I don’t even vote, so I don’t even care,” the rapper said in an interview with TMZ. “And I’ll go play for Putin and I’ll play in Iran if you want. It don’t matter,” he said.

If Trump does “headline” Freedom 250’s Great American State Fair, it will follow in the wake of another big event he has coming up — a UFC fight on the White House lawn taking place on his 80th birthday, June 14.