<\/p>\n
\n\tAs Kris Kristofferson might have put it, \u201cFreedom 250<\/a>\u201d is just another word for a festival with very few acts left to lose. As of Friday morning, five out of nine artists announced roughly 48 hours earlier for the \u201cFreedom 250\u201d concerts on the National Lawn in Washington, D.C. have officially declared their intentions to back out of the gigs, which were set up by a private\/public partnership founded by Donald J. Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tThe fifth and latest to declare he was pulling out was rocker Bret Michaels<\/a>, of Poison fame, whose exit statement essentially said that the atmosphere around the show had been poisoned, and that he was unnerved by threats that were coming in over the controversial festival.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen this opportunity was originally presented to my team, it was described as a celebration of our country through music and a chance to honor our veterans, active military, first responders, teachers and hardworking Americans from all walks of life,\u201d Michaels said in a statement posted to social media. \u201cAs the son of a veteran, and coming from a family that has proudly served, that is something I have always been honored to support.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe continued: \u201cUnfortunately, 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. Concerns have also been raised regarding the safety of my fans, band, crew, family and myself, including threats that are completely unfounded and unforgivable. Because of that, I have made the difficult decision to step away from this performance.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMichaels asserted that \u201cthis isn\u2019t about politics. It\u2019s about staying true to what I\u2019ve always believed in. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. That\u2019s one of the freedoms our veterans fought for and something I\u2019ve always respected. But as a father, friend and bandmate, I have to take threats and safety concerns seriously.\u201d (Scroll down to read the full content of Michaels\u2019 message.)<\/p>\n \n\tWith his departure, Michaels joins Morris Day<\/a>, Young MC, the Commodores and Martina McBride<\/a> on the list of those doing quick pullouts over the last two days. Only two out of nine acts have publicly declared an intent to go through with the gigs: Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli\u2019s Fab Morvan. C&C Music Factory frontman Freedom Williams said he was still uncertain whether he\u2019d go through with thier appearance or not. That leaves only Flo Rida out of the nine who has still not addressed the issue at all.<\/p>\n \n\tThe divisiveness that Michaels spoke of was fully evident in comments left on his social media posts about the pull-out, with different fans reading different things into the musician\u2019s message, which was nebulous on where he stands on Trump or whether the festival was initially a good idea.<\/p>\n \n\tA majority of messages on his posts congratulated Michaels for making the move he did, with many saying they would have had a hard time continuing to listen to his music if he had gone on at a festival that many identify with the president and the MAGA movement. But some disappointed conservative fans pointed out that Michaels\u2019 comments about \u201cthreats\u201d were the clearest part of his post, and that his exit might have more to do with that than any disavowal of Trump or his initiatives. .<\/p>\n \n\tSome of the conflicting comments on Michaels\u2019 pages: \u201cAs a veteran thank you for deciding to not participate. Much respect for you.\u201d \u201cThe currrent politics around the celebration are clearly taking away from the 250th. So thanks for making that hard call.\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re giving in to the Democrats who wanted you to back down. Shame on you.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m so proud of you!!! Great job on standing up for what is right.\u201d \u201cSo disappointed in you that you dropped out to cave to the intolerant as always Left. Your character was tested\u2026 and you failed miserably.\u201d \u201cThe others who have pulled out simply explained that they were lied to about the actual intention of the gig. There was no need for you to blame safety issues. Just be honest.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tOther comments on Michaels\u2019 pages: \u201cThis pleases me. I have tickets to see you this summer, and I actually got on here to sell them when I found out you were performing there. Now I guess I can respect you again because that whole thing is a big goat rodeo that I wouldn\u2019t want to see you be part of.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s totally about politics. Glad you dropped out.\u201d \u201cBeing invited to anything by the current administration should immediately be seen as a divisive red flag. How anyone thought otherwise is beyond me.\u201d \u201cThank you for stepping away from this event! I am the wife of a veteran. This administration is destroying veterans benefits.\u201d \u201cFolding like a cheap lawn chair. Your loss, not ours. Same PR person wrote this for Martina too.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe concerts, should they continue, are a part of a weeks-long event on the National Mall that is being called the Great American State Fair. It is one of many programs set up by Freedom 250, which was established by Trump as public\/private initiative to celebrate the nation\u2019s 250th birthday. Critics on the Democratic side of the aisle have charged that Trump founded Freedom 250 so he could wield total control of the nation\u2019s patriotic gatherings this year, making an end run around congressional plans and funding that had already been set in motion for a more independent commemoration of the nation\u2019s semiquincentennial.<\/p>\n \n\tPrior to the concert series turning into a public firestorm, the most recent controversy over Freedom 250 involved a religious rally held under that banner at the National Mall May 17, officially dubbed Rededicate 250. There, at what NPR described as \u201ca conservative prayer gathering,\u201d House Speaker Mike Johnson led the crowd in prayer, and administration figures such as Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio and the president himself appeared, with evangelists like Franklin Graham and Paula White-Cain also taking part. More centrist faith groups objected to the event as akin to a MAGA gathering, even though the official language around this and all other Freedom 250 events uses the term \u201cnonpartisan.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe full text of Bret Michaels\u2019 message:<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tHello to all my awesome friends & fans,<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tI wanted to jump on here real quick and talk about the upcoming Freedom 250 event in Washington, D.C. \n\tAs many of you know, I\u2019ve spent my entire career bringing people together through music, positivity and good vibes. My shows have never been about politics. They\u2019re about giving people a place to come together, have a great time and forget about life\u2019s stresses for a few hours.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tUnfortunately, 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. Concerns have also been raised regarding the safety of my fans, band, crew, family and myself, including threats that are completely unfounded and unforgivable.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tBecause of that, I have made the difficult decision to step away from this performance.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tThis isn\u2019t about politics. It\u2019s about staying true to what I\u2019ve always believed in. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. That\u2019s one of the freedoms our veterans fought for and something I\u2019ve always respected. But as a father, friend and bandmate, I have to take threats and safety concerns seriously.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tI believe in our country, in the freedoms we\u2019re afforded, and in the idea that for over 250 years we have gone through both highs and lows together and remained resilient. Music is a universal language that unites us, not divides us. Just like it did when I entertained a record-breaking crowd of over 100,000 at the St. Louis Arch for an Independence Day celebration with people from across the country who came together to honor our freedoms through music. The focus was on the music, the fans and celebrating together.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tI will continue to proudly support our veterans, active military members, teachers, first responders and the organizations that serve them, just as I always have. <\/em><\/p>\n \n\tI also want my amazing fans in Washington, D.C. to know that I love you all, and I fully intend to come back and perform in our nation\u2019s capital under circumstances where the focus can remain on what it should be \u2013 the music and the fans.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tIn the meantime, we\u2019ll keep the Live & Amplified Tour rocking, and I look forward to seeing all of you out on the road soon.<\/em> This is said with much love, gratitude, and respect.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tYour friend, \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As Kris Kristofferson might have put it, \u201cFreedom 250\u201d is just another word for a festival with very few acts left to lose. As of Friday morning, five out of nine artists announced roughly 48 hours earlier for the \u201cFreedom 250\u201d concerts on the National Lawn in Washington, D.C. have officially declared their intentions to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2436891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[393614,357063,478095,375820,478092],"class_list":["post-2436890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-bret-michaels","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-freedom-250","tag-martina-mcbride","tag-morris-day"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Bret-Michaels-Pulls-Out-of-Freedom-250-Cites-Threats-and.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2436890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2436892,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436890\/revisions\/2436892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2436891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2436890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2436890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2436890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
When this opportunity was originally presented to my team, it was described as a celebration of our country through music and a chance to honor our veterans, active military, first responders, teachers and hardworking Americans from all walks of life. As the son of a veteran, and coming from a family that has proudly served, that is something I have always been honored to support.<\/em><\/p>\n
Bret
(A lead singer with long texting issues)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n