{"id":13320,"date":"2026-05-31T01:11:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T01:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/31\/trump-suggests-canceling-music-performances-at-the-great-american-state-fair-after-several-artists-back-out-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T01:11:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T01:11:59","slug":"trump-suggests-canceling-music-performances-at-the-great-american-state-fair-after-several-artists-back-out-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/31\/trump-suggests-canceling-music-performances-at-the-great-american-state-fair-after-several-artists-back-out-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump suggests canceling music performances at the \u2018Great American State Fair\u2019 after several artists back out – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump<\/a> on Saturday suggested canceling planned performances by musicians for the Great American State Fair later this summer in Washington, after several artists pulled out of the event<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d Trump said in a post on Truth Social<\/a> Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cCancel it,\u201d Trump said, before launching into a separate criticism of a federal judge who on Friday temporarily blocked his planned closure <\/a>of the Kennedy Center.<\/p>\n

Trump is slated to speak at the opening ceremony for the fair in June as part of the United States\u2019 250th-birthday celebrations.<\/p>\n

Danielle Alvarez, a spokesperson for the Trump-backed Freedom 250 group behind the event, said Saturday that the president would \u201cpersonally kick off this historic celebration\u201d on June 24.<\/p>\n

Trump had posted on Truth Social earlier Saturday that he would look into hosting an \u201cAmerica is Back\u201d rally at the \u201csame time, same location\u201d after multiple recording artists pulled out of a series of concerts <\/strong>meant to take place during the fair, scheduled for June 24 to July 10 on Washington\u2019s National Mall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand Artists are getting \u2018the yips\u2019 having to do with their performance … so 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 \u2018Artists,\u2019 and give a major speech, rallying the Country forward like I have done ever since being President!\u201d Trump wrote in his post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A person familiar with planning for the event said Trump was always expected to headline a July Fourth event at the fair, and now he\u2019ll do the opening ceremony too.<\/p>\n

Freedom 250, a public-private partnership backed by the Trump administration that is organizing events to celebrate the nation\u2019s 250th birthday, last week announced a slate of artists<\/a> that would perform on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays during this summer\u2019s Great American State Fair.<\/p>\n

\"Young<\/picture>
Young MC, left, and Morris Day both declined to participate after saying they learned the event was political in nature.<\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shortly after the lineup was announced, Morris Day and the Time, Young MC, Martina McBride, the Commodores and Bret Michaels each announced they were declining to participate, saying they did not know the event was political in nature. Freedom 250 has not announced replacement artists.<\/p>\n

Freedom 250 officials denied that the event would be political, with a spokesperson telling NBC News on Friday that the group \u201cis a nonpartisan organization singularly focused on celebrating America\u2019s 250th anniversary and bringing Americans together around this historic milestone. From the outset, our work has reflected the unifying spirit of this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event has fueled confusion about the two prominent national groups<\/a> sponsoring events in Washington and around the country to commemorate America\u2019s 250th anniversary: Freedom 250 and America250. One organization, America250, was created after Congress passed a law 10 years ago to create a group responsible for planning events to celebrate the semiquincentennial, while the other, Freedom 250, was created following one of Trump\u2019s executive orders last year.<\/p>\n

Freedom 250 is the organization sponsoring several other marquee events in Washington this summer to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, like the FIFA World Cup 2026 Fan Zone in June, the Salute to America 250 Celebration and Fireworks on July 4, and the Patriot Games national fitness competition in August.<\/p>\n

In Saturday\u2019s statement, Alvarez said the multiweek Great American State Fair will be \u201ca World\u2019s Fair celebrating the people, traditions, innovations, and spirit that make America the greatest nation on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fair will feature \u201cstate exhibits, industry displays, family friendly attractions and movie screenings, musical performances, military ensembles, incredible flyovers, and an iconic Ferris wheel on the National Mall,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump on Saturday suggested canceling planned performances by musicians for the Great American State Fair later this summer in Washington, after several artists pulled out of the event. \u201cWe should have a giant MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY, for 250, instead of having overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}