Trump scraps Freedom 250 concerts & makes himself headliner
After several artists quit the Freedom 250 concert series over organizers’ ties to Donald Trump, the US president has announced a replacement event featuring himself as the headliner.
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Chris Stapleton will headline America250’s Fourth of July concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The concert is part of America’s Block Party, a multi-city celebration the organization is throwing for the country’s 250th anniversary. Queen Latifah is slated to host the Los Angeles events. The Smashing Pumpkins will also perform.
In addition to Los Angeles, the organization is also throwing outdoor parties in New York City, Milwaukee, Charleston, South Carolina and Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
“These are the moments that we all remember, the pomp and circumstance, the fireworks, the music,” said Rosie Rios, chair of America250.
America’s Block Party is separate from the Great American State Fair planned by another group, Freedom 250, in Washington, DC. That event made headlines in May when performers began dropping out of hours after the performance was announced.
Country singer Martina McBride and a half-dozen other artists said they originally thought they were performing at a nonpartisan event, but became weary of Freedom 250’s connections to President Donald Trump.
Prior to their dropping out, Freedom 250’s lineup of mostly 90’s era performers, including Brett Michaels, Morris Day and Milli Vanilli, received bipartisan criticism. Conservative commentator Megyn Kelley called the list “pathetic.”
Trump has since announced a new lineup of performers for the event, including himself and country singer Lee Greenwood.
America250 is a bipartisan nonprofit established by Congress in 2016 to plan the nation’s milestone commemoration, while Freedom 250 is a group Trump created to carry out his administration’s plans for the anniversary. Freedom 250 is run as a quasi-government nonprofit under the National Parks Foundation.
A spokesperson for America250 said planning for the Los Angeles concert has been in the works for months. The group worked to find “a range of well-known, nationally appealing artists,” the spokesperson said in an email.
America250 anchored the July 4th celebrations at the Los Angeles Coliseum because it is where many events for the 2028 Summer Olympics will be held, Rios said.
“This is kind of a passing of the torch,” she told USA TODAY.
Fans can attend the West Coast concert in person or watch the live stream on the America’s Block Party app. Hundreds of cities across the country are expected to host block parties as part of the event.
Tickets for the concert cost $17.76, in honor of the year of the country’s founding. They go on sale June 16 at 10 a.m. PT. Proceeds will be donated to Feeding America as part of “Giving 4th,” the organizations initiative encouraging Americans to make July 4 a day to give back.
Rios described the concert as a benefit show. “We anticipate that that is going to be kind of the new Live Aid on steroids,” she said.
America250 will also give away 5,000 tickets to first responders, veterans and active-duty service members.
This story has been updated to add new information.
Karissa Waddick covers America’s 250th anniversary for USA TODAY. She can be reached at [email protected].
