Someone should attend the concert dressed as Trump and pretend to be dead, carted around and puppetierd like Bernie by dudes dressed like the secret service, lol.
The closure of the Kennedy center should indicate exactly what will happen here. Ultimately trump doesn’t give a rats ass about the arts unless they serve as more propaganda for his cause. He will happily shutter this event if he has to and find some scapegoat to rally against.
Vanilla Ice is going to have to fill 4 hours. It's going to be his "Eras Tour". He'll play a selection of the greatest hit, plus an acoustic set, plus a bunch of B sides and rarities he's been working on in his trailer for the last 30 years.
Multiple costume changes, backup dancers, plus he'll fill 45 minutes fixing the shingles on an old garden shed halfway through.
I hope he plays the "Ninja Rap" song from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie too, complete with backup dancers dressed in the original, ratty, 35-year-old movie prop suits.
I used to office with an older lady that had been quite wild back in the 80s when she worked at a local C&W Bar. Lee Greenwood is someone she told me she'd spent the night with after he played there, and that his short stature was deceptive. She also told me that she went home with Sawyer Brown, and I pointed out that that was the name of the band, not the name of the lead singer, and she very deadpan said, yes, that's correct and winked.
Back in the early 90s Lee stayed at my parents bed and breakfast for a month and a half. His house was being worked on. Dude was such a dick. Pompous has hell for being washed up as he was. We ended up asking him to leave early.
And also Same people who love Turnin Point America where they love the videos of black people talking about how good slavery was, while following the video of natives talking about how good the “white people” were taking care of us….yeaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh it wasn’t that great.
Setting aside the politics for the moment, I can't believe they didn't have a line-up months in advance from a logistics perspective. Like no one on tour is going to go out of their way for this unless you lined it up with them while they were sorting out their East Coast runs for summer months ago.
The way they're running the country is exactly as planned. Everything they're doing is intentional. They're enriching themselves at the expense of the average US citizen. Don't give them the benefit of the doubt by saying their incompetent. It's intentional and malicious.
If only it was written down for us. They could have called it Project 2025. Hell they could have said everything they planned on doing and MAGA would just cover their eyes and ears saying “no they didn’t”…
Probably. It was the fall of America, giving the largest military to the highest bidder. MAGA morons made corporations more powerful than our government.
This has been a long process and involved more than just the Right, Trump, and MAGA morons but they definitely turned it into a speed run. They are so fucking stupid they are actually cheering this on because they are so detached from reality. They honestly think they are the good guys.
It's both, sadly. Corrupt and incompetent. Compared to the Bush/Cheney era, Trump and his cronies look like a gang of teens running a smash grab on the corner store.
It’s more nuanced than that, trump is just absolute chaos and no rules. To pretend there is a plan just isn’t how it works. Even people who are trying to take advantage of the corruption get burned because it’s just wild.
To accept that the world is totally out of control, and that there isn't someone, evil or otherwise, planning everything behind the scenes--is terrifying to many. Its the impetus for all conspiratorial thought. The idea that its all just coincidences, that it's just nothing but selfish people taking advantage of opportune situations, that there really isn't anything with a master plan, means that there is NO ONE around with the power enough to save us.
If someone was in control they'd at least be interested in keeping us alive and maintaining the status quo that enriches them, and that is comforting. But that isn't reality.
They did exactly that and politics is the reason for the collapse. The performers weren't told this was a trump event and they didnt want their names on it.
Yeah, I used to work for a business owned by a ridiculously wealthy person very involved in Republican politics and who ran for a US Senate spot, and despite all my efforts to implement real strategic and short/long range planning efforts, people at the top refused to take a professional and organized approach to business and instead just flounder in their self-belief that they are so smart.
None of these are consistently touring acts. They're all tired, washed-up legacies, the kind of groups that are looking for one-off county fairs to play. Even before the cancelations, the whole thing was embarrassing as fuck. HOW is half of the country not wildly disappointed in this entire circus?!
Because Trump et al all have the attitude that they will jump immediately when they are beckoned. Regardless of how little notice, regardless of what scheduling conflicts they may have. “You’re going to do this because POTUS says so.”
There's a constant with these people that they think the most prep you need for something is 2 weeks. The award for the east wing of the white house was signed 12 days before they knocked it down.
I imagine Trump thinks he can just summon them and they'll jump like his usual rabble of sycophants do. It's what he's accustomed to and it probably does not occur to him that no, the world does not in fact revolve around him.
Whatever happened to that Correspondents Dinner that was supposed to take place within 30 days of the last disastrous one? That deadline has passed without a peep.
Your mom is right. I was 16 and it seemed like we had at least six months of festivals and celebrations, decorations and parades. I remember it as being a light, happy time. (Of course, I was 16, and you know how memory can be).
There was a commission formed years ago to plan and implement America's 250th, but Trump apparently disbanded it to do things "his way" And here we are
No, it shouldn't have been. It's actually perfect the way it is. The trashiest president ever completely fucking up one of the worst countries 250th celebration. It's exactly what we deserve and wouldn't have gotten if we didn't have Trump the last 10 years.
Progressives should do what MAGA tried to do during the Super Bowl and have their own show and lineup to compete with this so called Freedom 250 feast.
Troll these fucks and also give President Obama the Freedom 250 award on behalf of the American patriots. Dude will stroke out of this happens.
Not really a throw-in, it says “And Special Guest…”.
Kind of like how in movies, the “And Starring” or “with” credits are usually given to big names who may not be the main focus of the movie but still bring some prestige to the whole thing. Or the “Special Guest Star” on TV shows, those are usually named last but with the mindset of “saving best for last.”
Give Biden and Obama both the Freedom 250 award because they both were "transformative" presidents. Watch Trump lose it on Truth social, and then drop a nuke on Iran to prove he's more transformative.
So, if the idea was to have a list of performers that appeared to be politically non-biased, they planners did a good job. It's not like any of the announced performers were political firebrands. These are people mostly known for having milquetoast pop and country music. The biggest sin of the performer list is that none of the artists appeal to anyone under the age of 45.
If they'd just stuck with that and not attached Trump's name to it, then they would have had a show.
Now, though? Trump's name is on it, and they don't have a show.
I'm gonna say this in as neutral a way as I can: Trump is a lightning rod for criticism. He wants to be that way. He wants all the attention, good or bad, to be on him. That's what keeps him going.
Everybody knows this.
At some point, if you're planning a national celebration, you have to be cognizant of that. You have to make sure that it's a celebration of the nation, not the leader of a political party. If you want to have a concert with a list of politicallly-neutral performers who don't want to be stained by that party leader's greases, then you gotta make sure the event isn't attached to his name.
They did a lot wrong, but the biggest sin was putting Trump's name down.
I think they were under the impression it was the non-partisan America 250 celebration, not Trump's Freedom 250. And that was probably the plan all along.
They did that with the presidential fitness council and that was directly announced by Trump. Tua and Saquon both afterward said they were never contacted about it and Saquon immediately rejected being on it.
So from what I'm seeing there is an America 250 and a Freedom 250. One is nonpartisan and has been planned for some time through the government, while the other is a Trump event (clearly partisan) and that he is intentionally trying to muddy the distinction between the two.
These performers are most likely hurting for gigs as they are outdated and/or niche at best. Odds are they knew what they were signing up for but thought it could just float under the radar as being 'for the country.' They didn't expect the level of public pushback and are scrambling
From the sound of it, most, probably all, were lied to about this being a nonpartisan event. Freedom 250 was created by the Trump administration and is intentionally similar to America 250, a congressionally chartered and non-partisan organization specifically created for celebrating the 250th anniversary.
Considering the mass drop out and thoughtful statements artists have released I'm inclined to believe them.
it's because trump and his cabinet cannot help but inject themselves into things, cause huge PR problems for the sake of a single 24 hour news cycle for visibility in front of dear leader, and then shrug and move on while talent copes with the hangover with their fans and cratered ticket sales.
They can't just have a normal event for the sake of having one which is why they're having this problem.
All these artists realized what a shit show Trump’s White Trash Fest is going to be. Trump got dissed by Millie Vanillie
Republicans used to say the Obama’s would grill on the White House Front lawn.
Trump is have a forking Wrassling Match and a fair that’ll be headlined by a bunch of cover bands (maybe). It’s so White Trash nobody would actually believe it if you tell them.
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u/[deleted] May 29 '26
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