Trump calls for replacing US 250th birthday concerts with MAGA rally
· The Straits Times- US President Donald Trump is considering headlining a Washington rally after artists quit 250th anniversary concert events, citing politicisation.
- Multiple artists, including Martina McBride and Bret Michaels, withdrew from the concerts. Michaels stated the event became "much more divisive."
- Trump, claiming larger audiences than Elvis, proposed the rally to replace "Third Rate 'Artists'". He also staged an MMA fight for his 80th birthday.
WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump called on May 30 for the cancellation of upcoming concerts celebrating America’s 250th anniversary after several musical acts backed out, saying they should be replaced by a political rally headlined by himself.
“We 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,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, adding: “Cancel it.”
Shortly after they were announced as performers in a concert series around the July 4 holiday, several musical acts backed out, with some citing politicisation of the event.
The concerts were scheduled to kick off on June 25 as part of a major exposition on the National Mall organised by Freedom 250, a Trump-backed public-private entity.
“I understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’” about performing, Trump said earlier on Truth Social, one day after a fourth and fifth act announced their departure, out of a total of nine artists originally announced. “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 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’.”
Trump said he was ordering aides to assess “the feasibility of doing an AMERICA IS BACK Rally on Wednesday” at the mall, where he would deliver a speech “rallying the Country forward like I have done ever since being President!”
On May 29, artists including country singer Martina McBride and glam rocker Bret Michaels, frontman of 1980s band Poison, said they were dropping out of the White House-backed concert series.
“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,” Michaels posted on Facebook.
Trump has openly tried to stamp his mark on the celebrations, most notably by staging an ultra-violent mixed martial arts fight in a specially constructed arena on the White House lawn on June 14 – his 80th birthday.
In a country that regularly produces many of the world’s biggest global stars, the remaining line-up of artists whose prime came and went decades ago – such as Vanilla Ice and C+C Music Factory – has sparked a flood of sarcastic comments on social media. AFP