<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Great American State Fair\u201d <\/a>is a series of concerts, exhibits, tributes and other programs scheduled to take place June 25 to July 10 on Washington\u2019s National Mall. It was organized by Freedom 250<\/a>, which is billed as a nonpartisan organization but was launched last year by President Donald Trump<\/a> and is headed by a Trump State Department appointee from his first term, the businessman-philanthropist Keith Krach.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Freedom 250 announced that Bret Michaels, the Commodores and Martina McBride would be among the musical performers, some of whom were slated for an \u201cI Love the \u201990s\u201d show on June 26.<\/p>\n But by late Thursday, Michaels, the Commodores and McBride had dropped out, as did Morris Day and Young MC.<\/p>\n Michaels and others have said that they were misled about the theme of the shows or were otherwise wary of being caught up in a political fight. In an Instagram post, Michaels wrote that he had thought his show would be a chance to \u201chonor our veterans, active military, first responders, teachers and hardworking Americans from all walks of life.\u201d But he concluded that the event had \u201cevolved into something much more divisive\u201d and referred to \u201cthreats that are completely unfounded and unforgivable.\u201d<\/p>\n McBride also issued an Instagram statement, saying she had been \u201cpresented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading.\u201d Young MC expressed similar sentiments in an Instagram post, while the Commodores released a brief statement saying they chose \u201cnot to publicly affiliate with any single political party.\u201d<\/p>\n As of Friday morning, performers still expected to appear include Flo Rida, Vanilla Ice and Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli, the Grammy-winning duo from the late 1980s-early 1990s who were discredited after reports that Morvan and fellow frontman Rob Pilatus did not sing on the records and lip-synced on stage. (The actual singers, including sisters Jodie and Linda Rocco, told The Associated Press that they were not invited).<\/p>\n Morvan told the AP in an emailed statement that he was “here to entertain and unite people, not divide them.\u201d<\/p>\n “Let\u2019s celebrate life & music and take a trip down memory lane,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A representative for Vanilla Ice told the AP in an email that the \u201cIce Ice Baby\u201d rapper was \u201cproud to help celebrate America\u2019s 250th Anniversary!”<\/p>\n “Everyone is welcome to attend and celebrate USA\u2019s Birthday and our Freedom!\u201d the representative said.<\/p>\n A Flo Rida representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Freedom 250 organizers have yet to respond to AP requests for comment. Freedom 250 spokeswoman Rachel Reisner told The New York Times in a statement that \u201cFreedom 250 is focused on our signature celebrations and events that honor our history and engage all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump, a Republican, has some prominent supporters in the entertainment industry, including Sylvester Stallone and Nicki Minaj,<\/a> but many more have shunned him. Taylor Swift<\/a>, Robert De Niro, Billie Eilish and Bruce Springsteen are among those who have endorsed Democrats and\/or condemned Trump, while Elton John, Kenny Loggins and others have objected to their music being used for Trump rallies or Trump videos. After the president ousted the leadership last year at the Kennedy Center and had his own name placed on the building\u2019s facade, numerous artists, including Bela Fleck, Ren\u00e9e Fleming and Issa Rae, called off scheduled appearances.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Sail4th 250 is a massive maritime celebration for America\u2019s 250th birthday, taking place July 3\u20138, 2026, in New York Harbor. NBC\u2019s OpenHouseTV came aboard the Oosterschelde: a magnificent three-masted topsail schooner built in 1918 that was lovingly restored to her original glory.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \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 www.nbcwashington.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe Great American State Fair\u201d is a series of concerts, exhibits, tributes and other programs scheduled to take place June 25 to July 10 on Washington\u2019s National Mall. It was organized by Freedom 250, which is billed as a nonpartisan organization but was launched last year by President Donald Trump and is headed by a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2451016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[460673],"class_list":["post-2451015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-america250"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Artists-drop-out-of-the-Trump-linked-Freedom-250-concerts-\u2013.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451015","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=2451015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2451017,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451015\/revisions\/2451017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2451016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why have artists been canceling their appearances? <\/h2>\n
Who’s still on the bill for the Freedom 250 concerts?<\/h2>\n
What Freedom 250 organizers have said<\/h2>\n
How, in general, artists have responded to the Trump administration<\/h2>\n