Trump Cancels his Big Show after Everyone Quits!!

0:00Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump has just canceled the Freedom 250 Great American State Fair after every musical performer except Vanilla Ice quit. Once they found out that it was a Trump event, they were lied to and deceived. They believed it was the America 250 event, not the Freedom 250 event. And once they learned it was the Freedom 250 event, which is the Trump propaganda event, each one of those performers quit. So now Donald Trump said the event is over. And instead of the musical acts, I'm going to be holding a rally and the event will just be a deranged Trump event. Donald Trump posted the following message.

0:40Ben Meiselas:He said that a lot of these musical acts have the yips, he said. He said, I understand artists are getting the yips having to do with their performance on Wednesday. So I'm thinking about bringing the number one attraction anywhere in the world. The man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime. And he does so without a guitar. are 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, to take the place of these highly paid third rate artists and give a major speech rallying the country forward like I have done ever since being president two years ago, the United States was dead.

1:20Ben Meiselas:Pause there for a second. So he's calling the artists who he invited to the event third rate. He's saying that he brings bigger crowds than Elvis. And he goes on to say that he's giving another one of these deranged Trump rallies. He then says, now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Pause. We have the hottest inflation right now that keeps going up, up, up. He goes, I don't want so-called artists that get paid far too much money who aren't happy. I only want to be surrounded by happy people, smart people, successful people, and people that know how to win. So by copy of this truth, I am ordering my representatives to look at the feasibility of doing an America is back rally on Wednesday, Washington, D.C.

2:05Ben Meiselas:Same time, same location. Only great patriots invited. It will be wild and beautiful. Celebration of America. Donald J. Trump. And then shortly thereafter, Donald Trump posted again about canceling this Freedom 250 state fair concert. And here's what he writes. He goes, 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. cancel it. Just like I canceled my involvement with the failing and unsafe to be in Kennedy Center because a highly conflicted, crooked federal judge said that I should not be allowed to spend my time and money in order to make the center great again, actually far greater than it ever was before.

3:00Ben Meiselas:It would have also been nice to see the Republican Democrat Union bring it to life. The Kennedy Center is broken, unsafe, and dollar sign busted and has been for many years. Judge Cooper also stated that the highly prestigious board of the center was not authorized to add the name Trump despite the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars of my time and money will be necessary for its successful reincarnation. So now the Kennedy Center will collapse both structurally and financially. Judge Cooper and his wife, and he gives the wife's name, should be ashamed of themselves. Judge Cooper, like numerous other crooked judges on my case, should be impeached.

3:43Ben Meiselas:Make America great again. Donald J. Trump. I wonder why people don't want to be at this music event. I wonder why artists don't want to be associated with it. And now you're saying you want to turn it instead of a concert into an America first or make America great again rally where you're going to ask for judges to be impeached and talk about their wife's names. I mean, this behavior is so utterly dangerous and deranged. And then to leave no doubt that this was always a Trump propaganda event from the outset, in addition to the fact that he's turning it into a Trump rally, which he was going to do anyway, and then use the artists as props.

4:24Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump started making social media posts like this after announcing that the event was going to be a Trump rally. He posted this weird AI image of himself and George Washington on horses with a rocket ship and with the American flag. He then posted a photo of himself. Looks like he's like kissing or eating the American flag or using it as a tissue. It's unclear. Then more posts of himself in George Washington. He posts Trump Peace Prize. He does a photo of himself on Mount Rushmore. Then he posts an image of a gigantic garbage can with trash in it. And then he says the Obama Presidential Library.

5:06Ben Meiselas:Even some of the biggest Trump sycophants are criticizing Donald Trump for doing this right now. I mean, Matt Walsh. You don't get more MAGA right-wing propaganda than Matt Walsh. Here's what he says, and I'm going to admit, I agree with Matt Walsh here. I don't think you're ever going to hear me say that again. Here's what Matt Walsh writes. I'm actually pretty pissed at how badly they've bungled America 250. Actually, it's not America. I want to be clear. Let me just fact check him there. Trump turned America 250 into Freedom 250. America 250 was something that was created in 2016. It's nonpartisan.

5:47Ben Meiselas:And this was supposed to be a celebration of our country. No politics, not a liberal or conservative thing. Let's just get good performers. Let's talk about our nation's history. We should all be able to rally around that, right? Trump turned it into Freedom 250 to make it about himself. And that's what turned off all of these artists. And then, of course, Trump lied to them. Anyway, Walsh goes on to say, First, they tried to invite Milli Vanilli and a bunch of other absurdly washed up geriatric one-hit wonders. Then when that didn't work, they decided to convert the event into a Trump rally where Trump will talk about himself for 90 minutes.

6:25Ben Meiselas:This should have been a massive, raucous celebration of the country and its 250-year history. Now it will be a political rally identical to the 10 million other ones we've already seen. And where I agree with Matt is, By the way, obviously, Milli Vanilli, Vanilla Ice, some of the artists there were obviously a bit silly and ridiculous. There were some artists that I was interested in potentially seeing, Martina McBride, Morris Day in the time, maybe the Commodores. But Donald Trump is certainly trapped in the 1980s and the 1970s, that's for sure. But you had Martina McBride, she said she was defrauded and she quit the event.

7:10Ben Meiselas:Young MC said he was defrauded. He quit the event. CNC Music Factory, Freedom Williams said that he was lied to about the event. He never knew it was like a Freedom 250 Trump event. He's like, I may still perform, but I hate Donald Trump. You should know that I hate him. Manila Ice said he would perform with Putin and Iran if he was asked. So he doesn't care. He just wants to do something and make money. He needs money, I think. Milli Vanilli, the real backup vocalists who actually did the singing, they're out. The Commodore said that they're out. Morris Day and The Times said that they're out.

7:43Ben Meiselas:Brent Michaels said that he out. No one's ever really heard from Flo Rida. But one by one, they all quit. And then Donald Trump said, Donald Trump posted that message right there. And then, look, you have the Great American State Fair Freedom 250 announcement. they try to say. But look, Freedom 250 is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to uniting Americans around the nation's 250th anniversary. The Great American State Fair is one of the Freedom 250 signature celebrations, bringing together the 50 states. No, I mean, like Donald Trump has invaded blue states with ICE and Border Patrol Gestapo.

8:20Ben Meiselas:I mean, he's ripped the country apart. And so you can't say that it's nonpartisan. And then Donald Trump starts posting images of himself with all this weird AI stuff and says it's going to be a political rally. I mean, that's just the reality of what he's doing. Martina McBride, as you know. And then in terms of who is in charge of Freedom 250, well, Donald Trump's the chair. And then the other leaders are MAGA Mike Johnson, Marco Rubio, Hegsif, Tim Scott, Monica Crowley, Ben Carson. It's all the MAGA people. Come on. That's not what this event is supposed to be. Martina McBride says that she was basically lied to about the event.

8:57Ben Meiselas:She said, I was presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event. I asked a lot of questions and was assured this was a nonpartisan event. And then she says that it turns out it was something different than what it was represented. Same thing with Young MC. He says, the artists were never told about the political connection. I literally saw the Freedom 250 affiliation this morning when it was announced two days ago. And he goes, I don't want to be a part of this. I want to perform in DC, an event that is truly non-political is what he ultimately said. I mean, if you think about the artists that Donald Trump has promoted before, I mean, it's, you know, Ted Nugent and Ted Nugent would go on stage with Donald Trump in Waco, Texas and say the following.

9:39Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip. I want my money back. I didn't authorize any money to Ukraine to some homosexual weight weirdo. I want my money back. Or Donald Trump would bring on stage Sleepy Hollow and Chef G once they were indicted in 2024 with 30 other gang members on a 140 count criminal indictment, including murder and at least 12 shootings. Chef G posted$1.5 million cash bond to get released. And he would show up with Trump and Trump would be big Chef G fans. You would have this guy, Forgotio Blow, did lots of songs about the videos that appeared to be chopping up girlfriends or something. I mean, if you look at these videos, very deranged videos this guy would make.

10:32Ben Meiselas:And then him and Alina Habba, Alina Habba over there was the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey wearing this like really creepy Trump, like fake gold necklaces. I mean, these are truly, you know, these are truly weird people. And as you know, I've been speaking a lot with Ben Folds, you know, who quit as the, he quit in February, 2025 as the curator of the National Symphony Orchestra. And I asked him about, you know, his decision to quit that I thought was very, very, very, you know, important. Here's what he had to say. Let's play this clip. It's really sad. You know, the Kennedy Center had so many great missions and it is a memorial as well.

11:22It's as close to sacred stuff as you can get for our federal government. But, you know, aside from that, it really is playing out roughly the way that it felt it would for me a year ago. and I'm not saying that I understood how events would unfold exactly but it was clearly the first step of it was it was an authoritarian move it was an authoritarian first first step and like obviously they weren't gonna start by trying to steamroller late-night comedians they thought they would run over us first and that's that's much easier because it's close to home and they know what they're you know and then how to do it but now the things that are happening are no surprise because that's, you know, it wasn't just him.

12:06I think people misunderstand. It's not just him going in wanting to book bands or something, you know, it's, it's commandeering, uh, you know, the, the, the governments, the, the, the arts, uh, and then from there, that's expression, that's free, that's freedom of expression. And from there, you move on to the networks and to Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel and 60 minutes, and you just keep steamrolling. So I was sick on my stomach when I quit because one, I knew they were gonna run in the ground. No one that they were appointing had any experience in arts administration, but that was never the point.

12:42Point was to take that, run over it and move on. So it's rotting over, you know, next to the Potomac in the moment. And it's like, it's just sad, you know?

12:52Ben Meiselas:And he was right. And of course, you know about the Kennedy Center ruling that the federal judge recently made that Donald Trump can't put his name on it anymore and that Trump has to open up the Kennedy Center and he can't be destroying it the way he is. Donald Trump's also made very weird posts about himself and Elvis. You saw on the post he made in the morning about Elvis, he previously posted, for so many years people have been saying that Elvis and I look alike. Now this pic has been going all over the place. What do you think? And then Donald Trump made a song with the January 6th insurrectionists.

13:30Ben Meiselas:They were selling the music on iTunes. Do you remember that? The January 6th insurrection choir was the song that they came up with. And Donald Trump would always claim that the J6 choir is beating Taylor Swift. More people care about the January 6th choir. When the insurrectionists were in jail, they did a phone call and he recorded the J6 insurrectionists. like with this really creepy audio. Like more people like the J6 choir than Taylor Swift. Remember, he would go around saying that. Here, play this clip right here. By the way, that's sort of like - Are you really beating Taylor Swift, by the way?

14:06Yeah, I did. The J6 is beating Taylor Swift. It's Donald Trump and the J6 prisoners. The Pledge of Allegiance. And on iTunes and on Amazon. Wow. And on Billboard, which is the big deal. Number one, Donald Trump. So now I feel like Elvis because now we've done The Apprentice. That was a great success we did. Now I've done now I've done a recording or whatever you call it. But no, it was number one. And you know what that is? That's a tribute to the fact that people feel the J6 people have been very unfairly treated. Just. Right.

14:42Ben Meiselas:And so we really need to call this behavior out. I'm glad that all of those artists quit. It exposed what this was going to be this propaganda fest for Donald Trump, where he was going to make it always about himself. And I think athletes, artists, musical performers, whoever, you have to realize that you can't avoid politics with Trump because he uses you as props for his fascist agenda. And so you have to be able to stand up to it and call it out. And I'm glad this event got canceled. I'm glad we see Trump getting humiliated. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Thanks for watching.

15:22Ben Meiselas:We appreciate you.