May 29, 2026 01:19 PM UTC

Yay America, or Whatever

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Trump administration continues to focus much of its attention on celebrations surrounding America’s 250th anniversary, it’s finding that enthusiasm for various musical events is not being reciprocated.

As ABC7 News reports from Washington D.C.:

Just two days after organizers announced the musical lineup for the Freedom 250 festival in Washington, D.C., nearly all of the listed acts have publicly backed out or disputed their involvement.

The Great American State Fair, part of a major 16-day event to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, had announced a lineup that included Martina McBride, Young MC, C+C Music Factory, Vanilla Ice, Milli Vanilli, The Commodores, Morris Day & The Time, Flo Rida, Bret Michaels, and others.

As of Friday, Flo Rida and Vanilla Ice appeared to be among the few major musical acts still expected to perform, while several others said they would not take part after raising concerns about political ties, misleading event descriptions, or unauthorized use of their names.

Even Bret Michaels, the former lead singer of the 1980s rock band Poison who would seem to be an ideal pairing for a MAGA audience, wants nothing to do with this event:

Bret Michaels also announced he was stepping away from the event, saying it was initially presented to his team as a celebration of the country and a way to honor veterans, active military members, first responders, teachers, and working Americans.

“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 wrote.

It’s pretty embarrassing for the Trump administration when even a bunch of one-hit wonder musical acts are saying, “Hell no” (also, whose idea was it in the first place to recruit Milli Vanilli, known to an entire generation of Americans only for being complete and total frauds?) Of course, this also creates questions about why event organizers even thought these musical acts would be on board in the first place, given that seven of the nine announced acts immediately backed out.

Things aren’t looking great for other scheduled events. As The Washington Post reports:

The Pentagon is moving to recruit hundreds of troops to appear as spectators at President Donald Trump’s UFC cage-fighting event at the White House, and requiring those who attend to pay their own way and meet height and weight requirements, according to people familiar with the matter and internal memos reviewed by The Washington Post.

The Defense Department in recent days has solicited troops across the services to attend the June 14 event in uniform. Officials are seeking junior enlisted personnel and junior officers specifically, according to internal messages that make clear travel costs will be “member-procured,” meaning neither the Defense Department nor the UFC intends to pay for their arrangements or accommodations.

Junior troops make up the military’s lowest pay grades.

Not only are troops being asked to attend the fight on their own dime — only, um, physically attractive people are allowed to come:

One memo, circulated within the Air Force, stipulates that to be eligible, personnel “MUST MEET CURRENT WAIST-HEIGHT RATIO and current physical fitness standard.” Troops will be required to wear their short-sleeve dress uniforms, the memo adds.

All of this is dumber than a $250 bill.

Naturally, there might be one of those, too.