A wave of musical performers have dropped out of the Freedom 250 Great American State Fair, saying they were misled to believe the project was nonpartisan. Freedom 250 is the White House’s hijack of America250, the official nonprofit entity celebrating America’s birthday. America250 was founded by a bipartisan U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, established by Congress in 2016.
By Nancy Levine Stearns | May 30, 2026
UPDATE: After this story was published by Impactivize, the Washington Post reported: “President Donald Trump will headline an opening ceremony for the Great American State Fair on the National Mall next month after many of the musical performers slated for the event canceled, citing the event’s associations with him.
“The Great American State Fair — organized by Freedom 250, a Trump-aligned entity he created by executive order to plan semiquincentennial events — this week announced a lineup of performers.”
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Most of the artists who were announced earlier this week as performers for the upcoming Freedom 250 Great American State Fair have pulled out of the event, some saying they were misled to believe the event was nonpartisan.
Grammy winner Young MC said in a post: “The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event. And despite claims by the organizers that the event is non-partisan, SPIN magazine described it as Trump-backed.”
Martina McBride joined those dropping out, saying in a post: “I will not be performing at the Great American State Fair on June 25th. I was presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading.”
A reporter at The Hill Sunrise asked a Freedom 250 spokesperson yesterday:
“Freedom 250 CEO Kevin [sic] Krach, who was appointed by President Trump, has said that your public private partnership is an opportunity to execute the president’s vision. Just going back to these claims from these artists about being misled about the event being nonpartisan. What is your response? You say it’s not political, but there is a partisan element to it, is it not?”
Freedom 250 spokesperson Julia Friedland defended the White House-backed project, saying it is “inherently nonpolitical.”
But Freedom 250 is Trump’s hijack of America250, the official nonprofit entity celebrating America’s birthday. America250 was founded by the bipartisan U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, established by Congress in 2016.
11 U.S. senators led by Sen. Adam Schiff launched an investigation into Freedom 250 in March, demanding answers from the White House and Interior Department about allocation of $100 million in taxpayer dollars and an alleged pay-to-play scheme.
A watchdog group has sued Trump’s Interior Department, demanding transparency on Freedom 250 funding. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a lawsuit earlier this month against the DoI in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, more than two months after the group filed multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests regarding the funding of the “controversial and secretive” Freedom 250 initiative, as Common Dreams reported.
“’America’s 250th anniversary celebration is supposed to be an occasion for strengthening public trust in our democratic institutions, not eroding it,’ Tim Whitehouse, PEER’s executive director, said late Monday. ‘In contrast, Freedom 250 is a privately managed slush fund… It epitomizes what is wrong with politics today.’”
The New York Times reported in February: “For $1 Million, Donors to U.S.A. Birthday Group Offered Access to Trump: A new organization blessed by the president is raising money for events and projects that will put a Trumpian spin on the nation’s semiquincentennial.”
Corporate sponsors of Freedom 250 include Deloitte, Mastercard, SAP, Scotts Miracle-Gro, UnitedHealth Group and United Airlines, among 18 companies listed on the Freedom250.org site.
The Wall Street Journal reported that corporate executives may have been “confused” by Trump’s Freedom 250 hijack of America’s birthday celebration:
“Representatives from the Trump-aligned group have in recent months called a bevy of major companies, including America250’s sponsors, asking for millions of additional dollars for its own events. The move confused corporate executives, many of whom didn’t know that Trump had started a separate organization to raise money for his own celebrations, according to people familiar with the inquiries.”
Trump’s Freedom 250 Events
Other Freedom 250 events are drawing criticism as well. “The planned spectacles — UFC Freedom 250 and the Freedom 250 Grand Prix — stray so far from the park service’s traditional mission and ethos that advocates and career employees are crying foul,” reported the Los Angeles Times.
“’These events are inappropriate and disrespectful to the history and importance of the White House and the National Mall,’ said Jonathan Jarvis, who began his career as a park ranger on the Mall in 1976 and was named director of the National Park Service by President Obama in 2009,” the LA Times reported.
The Trump administration asked the National Park Foundation — a congressionally chartered nonprofit that works closely with the park service and collects private donations to help maintain hiking trails and fund programs to get kids outdoors — to lend a hand with Freedom 250, and, as the LA Times reported:
“’Essentially, this is a hijacking of one of America’s oldest and most well-respected conservation organizations,’ said Aaron Weiss, director of the Center for Western Priorities, an environmental nonprofit based in Denver. ‘There are so many very good people at the foundation, with so many years doing real work on behalf of America’s national parks, it’s heartbreaking to watch.’”
Trump’s Freedom 250: white Christian nationalist hijack of America’s birthday
Trump’s Freedom 250 programming included Christian nationalist ‘Rededicate 250’ rally on the National Mall, Sunday before last. As Ja’han Jones wrote for MS NOW: “The Trump administration’s plans to celebrate the country’s upcoming 250th anniversary are shaping up to be an exhibition of Christian nationalist extremism.”
The Rededicate 250 event centered on the debunked narrative that America was founded as a Christian nation. “Historical hogwash,” Matthew D. Taylor, visiting scholar at Georgetown University, told me in an interview.
Freedom 250 | Rededicate 250 headliner Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a promotional post for the event, Americans are joining “under one flag and one God.” He said in a video promo, “Our rights don’t come from government, they come from God.”
Law school professors told me the Rededicate 250 event was unconstitutional. Garrett Epps, professor at the University of Oregon School of Law told me in an interview:
“The one thing the framers of the Constitution did not want was a federal government in Washington telling people what they had to believe. That has been unconstitutional since the framing of the Bill of Rights. It’s just the same as if the federal government, President Trump, were to proclaim that this year we’re going to celebrate the 250th anniversary of white supremacy. I can’t go to court and make the president not say that. But what I can say is it’s a gross violation of the Constitution.”
Elected officials have also been critical of Trump’s hijack of America’s birthday. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif) torched congressional Republicans in his remarks in February about Trump’s Freedom 250 | Rededicate 250:
“And you, his little Duma, let him hijack the country’s 250th anniversary, and sell access, hide his donors, and rewrite history. They siphoned off $100 million of taxpayer money to bankroll propaganda, as the administration replaces the real story of our history with a whitewashed fantasy. The horror of slavery, the Native American genocide, all that is out. Censorship and gauzy Christian nationalism, written by Prager U, is in.”
The Trump regime continues to weaponize the levers of government, targeting the president’s political foes, as well as Black and brown people, LGBTQ+ persons, women, immigrants, protesters, and anyone who challenges Trump or the regime’s vision for a white Christian nationalist theocracy.
Musical artists who dropped out of Trump’s Freedom 250 event apparently do not want to help execute the president’s vision — or his hijack of America’s 250th birthday celebration.
Freedom 250 CEO is Keith Krach.
No one from Freedom 250 corporate sponsors Deloitte, Mastercard, SAP, Scotts Miracle-Gro, UnitedHealth Group or United Airlines has responded to multiple inquiries.