President Donald Trump confirmed he will host a rally to replace the Freedom 250 concert series, which saw multiple headliners exit last week.
In an update shared on Truth Social Thursday, Trump said that he will be hosting the “rally to end all rallies” while making a jab at the previously booked performers for the Great American State Fair.
Specifically, he suggested the artists in-question, including Martina McBride, Morris Day and The Time and Bret Michaels, among others, had “no talent” and weren’t worth the cost.
Read his full message below.
“On Wednesday, June 24th, at 7 P.M., in magnificent Washington, D.C., now totally beautified, and one of the Safest Cities anywhere in the World, and in celebration of our Country’s 250 Year History, we will be bringing you, LIVE, the Greatest Rally, EVER! It will be special at every level — A Rally to end all Rallies! We don’t want singers with no talent, but big fees to put you to sleep, we’ve told them all to stay home. All we want is you, me, a few speakers, and the Greatest Music ever played, the same Music you have listened to for years! We will have the fabulous Lee Greenwood introducing me with what has turned out to be one of the Greatest Hits of All Time, GOD BLESS THE U.S.A., and the amazing Christopher Macchio, who will sing Nessun Dorma, Hallelujah, Ave Maria, God Bless America, and others — Not since the legendary Luciano Pavarotti has there been such a voice! The Rally will also be featuring the wonderful U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” and Armed Forces Choir, and “The President’s Own” Unites States Marine Band, with the Joint Armed Forces Chorus, all of your favorite Hits, PLUS a fine and highly dignified gentleman known as, President DONALD J. TRUMP!”
Trump’s decision came after nearly every artist booked for the event, including McBride, Day, Michaels, The Commodores, Milli Vanilli and Young MC, dropped out mere days after the lineup was first announced. In fact, McBride explained that she exited the celebration after feeling misled about it being a “nonpartisan” event.
The Great American State Fair, which is being organized by Trump’s nonprofit Freedom 250, was set to be a 16-day patriotic celebration on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It was supposed to kick off on June 25. The event’s website still shows that fair activities, including “specialty exhibits” and “interactive experiences,” will take place. Though, it has not been updated to reflect Trump’s rally plan.
At the end of May, organizers boasted that the Great American State Fair would “bring together all 56 U.S. states and territories in a World Fair-style celebration of America’s 250th birthday, featuring live entertainment, immersive exhibits, patriotic tributes, innovation showcases, cultural programming and family-friendly attractions stretching from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument.”
However, as the performers dropped out left and right and commentators, including Megyn Kelly, Jake Tapper and Jimmy Kimmel, mocked the disastrous celebration, Trump confessed on Saturday that he was considering scrapping it altogether.
“Cancel it, just like I canceled my involvement with the failing and unsafe to be in Kennedy Center,” Trump bemoaned in a separate Truth Social post.
Though, he did float the idea of a rally at the same time, writing, “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.”
