A White House-backed concert series imploded within hours of the lineup being announced. Days later, Donald Trump was threatening to headline the events himself or cancel the whole thing outright.
His administration’s Freedom 250 project boasted “star-studded entertainment” from “legendary” artists. But by the end of the week, the president was calling them “overpriced singers” who perform “boring” music that “nobody wants to hear.”
The bizarre and very public collapse of a high-profile, publicly funded concert series to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary has left just four acts standing over 16 nights — raising questions about how they were even booked in the first place.
Freedom 250 — which is funded through a public-private partnership with support from Trump-aligned tech firms Palantir and Oracle and federal contractors Deloitte and Lockheed Martin, among others — was already facing scrutiny from watchdog groups and members of Congress over the use of federal dollars for Trump-aligned events.
Trump has long wanted a splashy event and even splashier Washington, D.C. for this year’s Fourth of July. Instead, what he’s getting looks more and more like it will only be a souped-up version of one of the countless MAGA rallies — with a “Jock Jams” soundtrack.
After Freedom 250 announced headliners for the Great American State Fair on the National Mall this summer, the lineup fell apart almost immediately. At least five artists canceled their appearance over the event’s MAGA-coded political overtones of what had been pitched as a nonpartisan event.
The president exploded at aides over the cancellation fiasco and wants heads to roll over the embarrassing failure, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Bands started dropping out shortly after Freedom 250 issued a press release last week.
“Contrary to Rumor, Morris Day & The Time Will Not Be Performing At The ‘Great American State Fair,’” the band announced on Facebook.
Young MC said the artists “were never told about any political involvement with the event” when they were booked.
“I was presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading,” country singer Martina McBide said in a statement on social media.
Poison frontman Bret Michaels, a past winner of The Celebrity Apprentice, said he was similarly deceived.
“Unfortunately, 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,” he wrote.
Among the last-standing acts is a group advertised as Milli Vanilli, the infamous lip-syncing pop duo.
The duo’s sole surviving member, Fab Morvan, gained the rights to the Milli Vanilli name and continues to book performances without involvement of the backing musicians who actually sang on the group’s records.
Representatives for Morvan did not return The Independent’s request for comment. But one of the singers whose voice was used at the height of the group’s fame, Jodie Rocco, told The Independent that Morvan’s project has absolutely nothing to do with the work she and her twin sister did for Milli Vanilli decades ago.
“Our name and music are being used to promote an acoustic/alternative repertoire that is NOT Milli Vanilli, but instead, Fab Morvan creating his idea/thing with musicians and vocalists that had nothing to do with us,” she said.
“We have no problem with that, except that it’s NOT Milli Vanilli and it shouldn’t be called ‘Milli Vanilli’. His social media status states ‘X MilliVanilli member’, yet he keeps using the name while performing altered, ‘covers’ of our songs,” Rocco said. “It’s immaterial whether he has the ‘rights’ or not.”
Rocco added that the “real” artists behind Milli Vanilli “would have performed our hit songs with pleasure” had they been asked to appear.
Another group billed as C&C Music Factory, the dance group best known for “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now),” is also on the bill.
Freedom Williams, a rapper who owns the right to use the group’s name, appeared frustrated by fans looking to “cancel” him over his involvement in a video posted to Instagram in which he stressed that he “doesn’t f*** with Trump.”
“The day I let you motherf***ers tell me what to do is the day I die,” he said in the video.
Robert Clivillés — who founded the group with David Cole, who died in 1995 — said in a statement that Williams was “disguising himself as C&C Music Factory.” Clivillés “was neither involved in, consulted regarding, nor have I endorsed the event,” he said.
Rappers Flo Rida and Vanilla Ice — the “Ice Ice Baby” rapper who has performed at Mar-a-Lago several times — also don’t appear to be backing out.
The 1990s one-hit wonder artist, whose real name is Robert Van Winkle, said in a TikTok video that he was “super honored to do this concert.”
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