President Donald J. Trump issued a social media statement Saturday in which he seemed to be taking issue with “third rate artists” dropping out of government-sponsored appearances in Washington, D.C., suggesting that he is looking at instead producing a different patriotic event that will have as its primary performer a star “who gets much larger audiences than Elvis”… Donald J. Trump.
The Truth Social statement is confusing on first blush, since Trump repeatedly refers to “Wednesday” as the date something could or would happen. In the context of the news of the last few days, he would seem to be referencing the wave of music artists dropping out of the “Freedom 250” series, but those shows are all scheduled for late June or early July, so the timeline for his line of thinking in the post is far from clear.
The president wrote: “I understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’ having to do with their performance on Wednesday, 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 ‘Artists,’ and give a major speech, rallying the Country forward like I have done ever since being President!”
Although he does not cite Freedom 250 or any of the artists by name, his statement follows 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 he founded as a public-private partnership to host events celebrating the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.
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.
What Trump meant with his references to “Wednesday” remains uncertain.
The president does have another big event coming up with a UFC fight on the White House lawn, taking place on his birthday, June 14.
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 event.
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