President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to “order” that he be the main act at his Freedom 250 celebration after two-thirds of the musical lineup dropped out.
“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,” Trump, 79, posted on Saturday.
The president then went on to reveal who the main attraction was, bizarrely writing about himself in the third person: “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.”
Though the 79-year-old president referred to an event taking place “on Wednesday,” he appeared to be referencing the Great American State Fair, a festival scheduled to run on the National Mall between June 25 and July 10.
Nine acts, including country star Martina McBride, rapper Young MC, and Poison frontman Bret Michaels, were announced this week as musical guests, but two-thirds have since canceled their appearances.
Trump billed his post as an official decree, saying that “by copy of this TRUTH” he was ordering his representatives to see if he can hold an “AMERICA IS BACK” rally in Washington, D.C., at the “same time, same location.”
“I don’t want so-called ‘Artists’ that get paid far too much money, who aren’t happy,” he wrote.
Artists claim that the event was described to them as featuring performers as a non-partisan celebration of U.S. history, despite it being organized by the MAGA-backed Freedom 250 initiative.
“I was presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event, but that turned out to be misleading,” McBride wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday announcing her decision to pull out of performing.
Similarly, Michaels announced his decision in an Instagram post, noting: “My shows have never been about politics. They’re about giving people a place to come together.”
The other musicians slammed by Trump as “Third Rate Artists” included Young MC, Milli Vanilli, Morris Day and The Time, and The Commodores.
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